The Fear of Understanding
by Miss Sofie
Summary: OC/Damon. Hannah has a crush on Stefan Salvatore's handsome older brother, but as she gets to know Damon better, she finds out that there's a lot more to him than meets the eye. And it's not only good...
1. The Consequences of Being Clumsy

_**A/N:** This is my first fanfic for 6 or 7 years, and it's a really huge thing that I'm actually posting it. Please be gentle - and of course honest - when reviewing it, otherwise I may give it all up again, and I've really enjoyed writing again the past few weeks. _

_A big THANK YOU to my fantastic beta, **Dawnie-7**, I probably wouldn't be posting this if it wasn't for you!_

_This story is based on the TV show, and not on the books. And please have in mind that it's only **based on**, so the story line may differ quite a lot. _

_**Disclaimer**: I don't own any of the original TVD characters, nor the original plot._

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><p><strong>Chapter One – The Consequences of Being Clumsy<strong>

The first time I actually talked to Damon Salvatore, was at a party in the woods right outside the small town of Mystic Falls, which had been my home for the past 17 years. It had been a long and hot summer, and we were enjoying the last few warm days until fall would take over.

I had had a crush on Damon for a while, though. Stupid, I know, but which school girl hasn't had a crush on someone they didn't actually know?

I had seen him several times at parties with my school mates, though he didn't go to Mystic Falls High. He was Stefan Salvatore's older brother, and I guess that's why he always crashed our parties.

I didn't mind the slightest bit. He looked all adult and grown up, and I loved his dark and mysterious appearance. And when he looked at me...well..._if _he looked at me at all, those blue eyes of his would take my breath away for a few moments, until someone would call me back to reality.

This night was no different from all the other party nights we had. At least not yet.

"Hannah, you're doing it again." Lily sighed and took my hand. "Come on, let's dance!"

Lily was my best friend since kindergarten. Or maybe even before that. Our parents had been friends long before we were born, and so Lily and I had always known each other and spent most of out spare time together. That hadn't changed even when we started dating boys.

While Lily and I danced, I couldn't help but look for Damon in the crowd. I was beginning to feel a little drunk, and I reckon Lily was too.

"Why don't you just go talk to him?" She asked a little too loud for my liking. On the other hand, the music was loud, so no one would hear her most likely.

"I don't know." I said and felt stupid. "I don't know him."

"That's why you need to go talk to him!" Lily said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Come on, let's go talk to Stefan and Elena, then."

Stefan and Elena were in the same year as Lily and I. We had a lot of classes together (Lily and I had _all _of our classes together), and we had known Elena since kindergarten as well. Stefan had just moved to Mystic Falls recently, so I didn't know him very well yet. The two of them, however, had been dating almost since Stefan had moved in, and they seemed to be very much in love.

"Hannah. Lily." Stefan said with a small nod and a smile at us. Always so polite. He wasn't my type, but I could easily see why a girl like Elena would fall for him. He was good-looking, always well dressed and well-behaved. He was sweet and funny, and he was probably a bit of a dream guy to many girls. But not to me. I preferred his brother!

Elena gave Lily a hug and then she turned to me.

"It's good to see you here." She said and hugged me a little longer than I would've expected from her. Well, she was probably just drunk like the rest of us.

When she let go of me, and I took a step backwards, I stumbled over a tree root and fell, but someone caught my arm before I hit the ground, and pulled me up to stand on my feet again.

I turned around to see Damon Salvatore right behind me, a smirk playing on his lips.

"Eh...thank you." I said, and I probably blushed.

"You're welcome." He replied and reached out his hand to me. "I'm Damon. Stefan's brother."

"I know." I said and shook his hand. "I'm Hannah."

"I know." He said with a smile I couldn't read. "You oughta watch your steps here in the woods. Next time you fall there might not be anyone to save you!"

His talking to me had taken me quite by surprise, and I didn't know what to say in return. I looked to Lily for help, but she was looking questioningly at Stefan and Elena, who were looking at Damon. They both looked rather annoyed with his presence, but when I turned back to answer him, he had disappeared.

"Now that was weird!" Lily said with a frown. "Your brother is pretty spooky, Stefan!"

"My brother is plain weird!" Stefan sighed and then looked at me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said and had forgotten all about my stumbling. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You just look...startled!" He said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Don't let Damon get to you. He's not worth it."

"Oh." I said feeling slightly disappointed. "I won't."

"Good. Now...who wants to dance?"

Elena shook her head, so Lily seized the opportunity and left with Stefan.

"Elena!" Someone called and a girl named Caroline, came over. Caroline was the head cheerleader of Mystic Falls High, and with her wavey, blonde hair and pretty face she was also very likely to become the next prom queen. A bit snobbish and shallow, I think, but I didn't really know her well enough to judge.

"Oh...Hi Hannah." She said and gave me a brief smile. Then she took Elena's arm. "Let's go get something to drink!"

"Wanna come?" Elena asked with a look at me, and I followed.

I hadn't noticed until now that Damon was tending the bar. In fact, I was pretty sure he hadn't been until now, as I had been getting something to drink quite a few times already and hadn't seen him there. I watched how he played around with the bottles, throwing them up in the air and catching them behind his back, pouring drinks without spilling a single drop. He stopped, though, as we approached.

"Well, well... Hello again, Hannah!" Damon said with another one of those smiles I couldn't read.

"Playing the part of the bartender now?" I asked with a small smile at him as he placed three empty glasses before us.

"I'm not _playing_ anything." He replied and filled my glass to the edge without taking his eyes off mine. "I just do what I want."

"Damon...?" Elena said looking at my glass. Her voice was calm but not very satisfied. "Don't do this!"

"Relax, Elena! I'm not doing anything!" He replied with a sly smile and poured a few centiliters of whisky into her glass. Then he poured Caroline the same amount.

"I hope not!" Elena muttered and took me by the arm. "Let's go somewhere else."

As the three of us walked away, I couldn't help but turn my head and look back at Damon. I think he might have expected me to, as he was looking in our direction, sending me a smile as our eyes met. I smiled back at him, thinking that he was incredibly cute with his dark hair almost falling into his eyes, and the charming smile playing on his curvy lips!

As the night went on I got pretty drunk. I danced a lot with Lily, but then she began flirting with a boy from our biology class. I think his name was Joshua.

The two of them were pretty lost in each other, and without Lily I felt kind of lonely, so I went to the bar to get another drink. I hadn't seen Damon for a while, and I was searching the crowd to see if I could find him, when someone said my name.

"Hannah, do you want to dance?" It was Tyler, the spoiled, rich kid who was hosting the party.

I turned around to face him, but before I had a chance to answer, someone interrupted.

"I believe this dance is mine." Damon said with a crooked smile and reached out his hand to me. Tyler backed off with an annoyed expression on his face, but he didn't say anything, so I took Damon's hand and followed him into the crowd of dancing people.

The music changed to something rather silent, and my heart did a little somersault as he lay his arms around me.

"What're we doing here?" He whispered, and I felt the warmth of his breath tickle my ear.

"Dancing." I replied, feeling much more drunk than a minute ago. I closed my eyes for a moment.

"Let's get out of here." He said and put a hand on my cheek. I opened my eyes again to see if he was being serious. Apparently, he was.

"Come with me!" He said looking me right in the eyes, and for some reason I couldn't help but nod and follow.

Normally, I would've hesitated, and if not, I would've at least told Lily I was leaving, but I didn't. I did feel a little guilty about that, but not nearly enough to stay.

I don't really remember much of what happened next. I went home with Damon, but I don't remember how we got there. I just know that suddenly we were on a couch, clothes being ripped off and deep kisses being exchanged. I remember the tickle when Damon kissed my neck, but then I had a black-out, and I don't remember anything else that happened until next morning.

...

I woke up with a really bad head-ache. I opened my eyes and took a look around, not really sure where I was. The room looked kind of old-fashioned with heavy, wooden furniture, long, thick curtains by the windows, and rugs on the stone floor. It was rather dark in the room, though rays of daylight were entering through the windows. I pulled a blanket around me and got up, ignoring a sudden dizziness in my head.

"Ah, she awakes!" I heard Damon say and found him standing by a window. He had his back against me, and he continued to look out the window when speaking.

"'Morning." I said and went over to him. He reached out a glass to me, with a clear liquid inside.

"For the head-ache." He said.

"Thanks."

I drank greedily, as my throat was very sore from last night.

"Did you sleep well?" I asked and lay a hand on his arm. He backed away and looked me in the eyes.

"You have to get dressed, and then you have to leave." He said, not smiling or anything else that could insinuate that this was a joke, though a very bad one.

"I have to get dressed and leave." I heard myself say, and I went back to gather my clothes.

As I put on my top, it hurt as it rubbed on my neck. I reached up a hand to touch the spot, and I felt several bruises. I even got dried-up blood on my fingers.

"What happened?" I asked still getting dressed and ready to go.

"You fell and hit the table." Damon said turning around to face me."Clumsy you! Didn't I tell you to be more careful?"

"Yes, you did." I said and put on my jacket. I surpressed a small scream as the weight on my neck and shoulder made the wound start throbbing. Then I put on my shoes and left the room.

As I opened the front door to go outside, the doorway was blocked by Stefan and Elena coming home from somewhere.

"Hannah!" Elena said in surprise. "What're you doing here?"

"I'm on my way home." I said and tried to get past them.

Like all of a sudden, Elena grapped my jacket by the neck and pulled it aside some.

"Ouch!" I said as it hurt. She looked really angry as she saw the bruises.

"I fell and hit the table." I said and she let go of me.

"Damon!" She spat angrily, though I had no idea why.

"See ya tomorrow!" I said and pushed past the two of them in the doorway.

It was a long way home, but I didn't exactly bring a car last night, and for some reason I felt like I couldn't wait until someone would come and pick me up.

And therefore I began walking...

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><p><em>Hope you liked it. Please take a few moments to review, I'd be really happy to know what you think!<em>

_- Miss Sofie_


	2. If You Can't Handle The Truth

_**A/N**: Posting this right after Chapter One, so nothing new to say._

_Thanks again to **Dawnie-7**, for being my wonderful beta._

_**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the original characters of TVD, nor do I own the plot._

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><p><strong>Chapter Two – If You Can't Handle The Truth<strong>

I was feeling a little distracted on Monday morning. I came late to school as it had taken me longer to get ready than usually. I'm not sure why. I don't think I did anything I wouldn't normally do. I put on some make-up and clothes – a short, gray skirt, a light yellow top, and a light blue skarf around my neck with yellow stripes matching my top. Last but not least I put on my strappy sandals with high heels. What can I say? I was 17 years old, and looks mattered!

I forgot to bring a jacket, though.

I parked the car in the school parking lot, and stopped for a second as I closed the car door to watch some of the younger boys playing soccer in the football field. I only recognized a few of them from this distance – Lily's brother Leonard, Elena's brother Jeremy, a guy named Finn who used to have a crush on me in elementary school, another guy named Mick, and a few others who I either didn't know or whose names I didn't remember, I wasn't sure which. We usually crashed each other's parties, which is why I knew these guys. Except for Leonard, of course. As he was Lily's younger brother, I had known him from the day he was born. Alright, so maybe a couple of days after he was born!

"Looking good today, Hannah!" Leonard shouted and waved at me with a big smile. It made the rest of the guys turn around and look at me, and suddenly I became very aware of the fact that I was the only one in the parking lot. I'm pretty sure I blushed. I do that a lot.

"Thanks!" I replied with a roll of my eyes and waved back at him.

That was so typical for Leonard. Always in a good mood, never caring what other people would think!

I found my way to the biology class and managed to sneak in while the teacher, Mr. Henderson, was writing something on the blackboard with his back turned to the door.

I sat down next to Lily, who had, as always, saved me a seat.

"Why're you so late?" She whispered and frowned at me. "And what's with the scarf?"

"I told you. I got a few bruises from falling. Just trying to cover it up."

"It's that bad?"

I pulled down the scarf a bit so she could see for herself.

"You got that just from falling over a table?" Lily said with wide eyes. "It almost looks like a love bite!"

"Well, but it's not." I whispered and pulled up the scarf again. I noticed that a few of our class mates were watching us, and I didn't want people to start talking.

"I'm really excited you could join us today, Miss Cohen," Mr. Henderson suddenly said with a stern look at me, "but could you do us all a favor and keep quiet now that you're here?"

I sighed loudly and earned another stern look from Mr. Henderson, but he didn't scold me any further.

...

"Hannah, we need to talk!" Elena said and encouraged me to follow her. We were outside in our first break enjoying the summer sun, though the temperature had slowly begun dropping the past few days.

"About what?" I asked and followed Elena to a more quiet place in the school yard. Stefan followed too.

"Hannah, you know I told you about my brother on Saturday, right?" Stefan asked and looked at me with a somewhat pleading expression on his face.

"Told me what about him?" I said feeling rather uncomfortable. I had no idea where this was going.

"That he was weird. That you shouldn't let him get to you. And stuff."

"Eh, yes?" I said, recalling the moment when Damon had caught me and saved me from falling.

"I meant it." Stefan said and hesitated. "He's...uh...he's not good company!"

"Why?" I asked still pretty confused by this sudden "attack", which it felt like to me.

"He's just..." Elena interrupted laying her hand on my arm. "He's not good...for you."

"For me?" A thought crossed my mind. "You mean he's not...available? Or...?"

"Something like that." Stefan sighed looking at Elena for a split second. Then he looked back at me. "Just don't go get yourself all worked up over him. He's really not worth it."

"I'm not gonna get _worked up_ over him. I think he's a jerk!" I replied offendedly, not caring that it was Stefan's brother I was talking about. "But if I were, it wouldn't really be any of your business!"

I shook Elena's hand off my arm and began walking back to Lily and the rest of our classmates.

"Hannah, wait!" Elena called and caught up with me. "Stefan's just trying to protect you!"

"Protect me?" I spat angrily and kept walking. "From what? His oh-so-dangerous big brother? Seriously, I think I can take care of myself! I'm not a helpless little gir!"

"Fine!" Elena said angrily and made me stop to look at her in surprise. "You do that. As long as you promise me you _will_ be careful!"

I hesitated before speaking again. Elena wasn't the one I was mad at. Damon was.

"Alright." I said with a small smile at her. "And thanks."

"You're welcome." She said and gave me a little smile as well, before she went back to Stefan.

Smiles from Elena had become rare the last few months. Her parents had died in a car accident in the spring, leaving her and Jeremy to be raised by a young aunt or something like that.

Elena's smile was really pretty, though, and in a way, comforting, like she cared even if we weren't the best of friends. I had always been somewhat jealous of her, though of course not when she lost her parents. She was very beautiful with her long, dark hair and matching eye lashes. On top of her looks, she was kind and smart, and everybody liked her.

I, on the other hand, had boring, blonde hair, and no one ever looked my way. Well, at least the popular boys never did. And I was shy. Shy and boring never made a very good combination.

...

"Hannah, where are you going?" Lily asked as I tossed my bag onto the backseat of my car (Well, my Mom's car. I only borrowed it now and again.).

"Home?" I replied looking up at her. "Want a ride?"

"You forgot, didn't you?" She said with a sigh. "The collection for the residential home. It's today!"

"Oh, shoot!" I had completely forgotten.

Our school was supposed to collect money for the Mystic Falls Residential Home by doing work for people around the town. The home needed new wheelchairs or something like that, and since our school always participated in charity events, we had signed up for different small jobs at stores, offices, private homes, etc.

"I should've known when I saw what you were wearing this morning." Lily sighed. "I suppose you didn't bring a change of clothes?"

"Nope." I said and closed the car door. "Any chance Caroline will let me take a job that I can do in this?"

Lily shook her head. "Don't think so."

"Me neither."

I was pretty gloomy when heading back to the school yard and Caroline's table of distribution.

"Lily and Hannah..." Caroline said as it was our turn to get a task. "Window washing at the Bates' residence!"

Caroline always did the organisation stuff at school events. I think she liked being in control because she usually wasn't the most controlled person in Mystic Falls to say the least.

"Great." I muttered and tried picturing myself climbing ladders in high heels. Then something caught my attention.

"What is _he_ doing here?" I asked Lily in a whisper, as I saw Damon entering the school yard, taking a casual look around before heading towards Stefan and Elena (did those two ever go _anywhere_ without each other?).

"Probably just delivering a message for his brother or something." Lily replied. "Which reminds me... I forgot to give Lauren a message from my mom. Be back in a sec!"

Lauren was the school secretary. She and Lily's mom were close friends, my mom also knew her.

When Lily left I couldn't help but watch Damon, though trying not to make it too obvious. I was pretty mad at him for several reasons.

_1: He had gotten me way too drunk at the party._

_2: He had taken advantage of me when I was so drunk I hardly knew what I was doing._

_3: He hadn't exactly been nice to me on Sunday morning._

_4: He had cheated on his girlfriend with me._

_5: He kept popping up in my mind when I didn't want him to. And, apparently, now also at school._

I felt an urge to run over to him and slap him in the face and tell him what a jerk I thought he was, but I restrained myself from doing so. Then, suddenly, something made a lot of commotion by the entrance of the school's main building, and everybody crowded around to see what was going on. And there, at the bottom step of the staircase, lay Lily.

"Oh my God!" I exclaimed and pushed through the crowd. "Lily, are you okay?"

Stefan was already there, helping her up again.

"I'm alright." She said with a small smile. She had a couple of scratches on her right arm. "I think."

Then she took a step towards me, her left arm around Stefan's shoulders, but I could easily see her eyes filling with tears.

"You're not alright." I said and put her right arm around my shoulders to help Stefan hold her up. "Is it the ankle?"

She nodded, tears starting to run down her cheeks.

"Alright, we gotta get you to a doctor." Stefan said and looked around. "Miss Hayes?"

Miss Hayes was Lauren. She was hurrying down the stairs to Lily, worry showing on her face.

"I'll take her to the doctor." She said and took a look at Lily's ankle. "It doesn't seem broken, but we can't be sure."

"I'll come with you." I said and helped Lily sit down on the stairs again. "Should we call an ambulance?"

"No, I'll drive." Lauren said and got up again. "And there's no need for you to come, Hannah, you have work to do. I'll go get the car."

"But..." I said with a frown at Lily.

"It's okay." Lily said. She had almost stopped crying again. "I'll be fine with Lauren. Besides, you'll have twice as much work to do without me, so you'd better get started!"

She said the last part with a smile, so I figured she wasn't hurt that bad after all.

"Alright, listen up everybody!" Caroline's voice sounded loudly from the distribution table. "Is anyone still available? We need someone to take Lily's place, now that she's otherwise engaged!"

No one seemed to be available, though, and I kind of hoped she'd just let me go, but of course she wouldn't. Then slowly, while everyone was watching, Damon began walking towards Caroline.

"I guess I am." He said and gave her one of his small, quirky smiles.

"Fine." Caroline said with a little-too-pleased smile. "You'll be washing windows with Hannah!"

"What?" I exclaimed. "Seriously?"

"Why not?" Caroline said, still with that overly satisfied smile on her face. "We need all the help we can get, and you don't wanna be washing windows alone, do you? Besides, we're doing it for the elderly people, it's a good cause!"

"Yes, but..." I said, but I didn't really have any reasons why not, unless I wanted to tell the whole school what had happened when Damon and I had left the party.

"What's the matter? Do I make you feel uncomfortable?" Damon said with a very self-satisfied smile on his face. He and Caroline would've made a perfect couple at that very moment.

"Fine!" I hissed and stomped past the two of them. "But I'll drive!"

...

I don't know what it is with boys and car stereos, but on our way to the Bates' house, Damon began fiddling with the buttons, changing the channel, turning up the volume and stuff like that.

"Would you _please_ stop that?" I said between my teeth. I was really annoyed with him, and I had a hard time concentrating on driving.

"Why?" Damon asked and kept playing with the stereo.

"Because I said so!" I replied and cast a quick glance at him, when he actually _did_ stop. I'm pretty sure I saw a small smile on his face, though he turned away to look out the window.

"This really _is_ much more fun than turning up the volume." He said sarcastically, still looking out the window.

"Sorry that I'm not exactly in the chatting mood!" I replied harshly. "And no one asked you to come!"

"Ouch!" Damon exclaimed sarcastically. "That hurt!"

"Sure it did."

"Now, tell me, Hannah, why is it that you're so pissed at me?" He looked at me with a very innocent expression, but I had no doubts he was just pretending.

"Because, Damon, you're an ass!" I replied and wheeled up the driveway to our destination.

"Well, yes I am, but I haven't been to you, have I?"

"Seriously?"

"Alright, so maybe I wasn't exactly being a gentleman yesterday morning, but _you_ left without complaining!"

I hadn't really thought of that before, but I guess he was right. That didn't exactly get him off the hook, though.

"And?" I asked expectantly.

"And what?"

"Didn't you forget to tell me about one, sort of, important thing?"

He widened his eyes as in disbelief for a split second, but then he eyed me suspiciously.

"What exactly did Stefan tell you? Or was it Elena?"

"I figured it out myself, when they told me you weren't good for me."

"Now _that_ part _is_ true, but whatever you figured out, I have a hard time believing Stefan would actually agree with you."

"Why wouldn't he? And who is she, by the way?"

"She? What are you talking about?" The confused expression on his face turned into a smile as realisation washed over him.

"Ah...you think I have a girlfriend! Oh, that is so cute!" He mocked amusedly.

"Cute? Why don't you just go get yourself killed!" I snapped and got out of the car, slamming the door behind me.

"Already tried that." He replied casually, getting out of the car as well. "Didn't work."

...

Damon and I split up when washing the windows. I would take the ones I could reach from the ground, and he would do all the ladder climbing. He did suggest we do it the other way around, but I refused, as I was still wearing my short skirt and high heels.

As Damon began washing the windows on the north side of the house, I chose to begin on the south side. Yeah, childish, I know, but he was really pissing me off.

It didn't take long, though, before he came around the corner carrying the ladder on his shoulder.

"What are you doing here?" I asked annoyedly.

"Same as you. Washing windows." He replied rolling his eyes at me.

"You can't possibly already be done washing on the other side!"

"Of course I can. And if you don't believe me, feel free to go take a look."

I didn't, though. I wanted to finish as quickly as possible, not only because of Damon, but also because it was getting a bit cold, as the sky was clouding over.

Damon crawled up the ladder, beginning to wash the upper windows. For a while we worked in silence. Awkward silence.

All of a sudden I got a huge drop of soapy water on my shoulder and down my back. I threw my own water bucket aside and took a firm grip of the ladder.

"You stupid, obnoxious _jerk_!" I yelled and shook the ladder as much as I could.

In an instant Damon had slid down to face me.

"I did _not_ do that on purpose!" He said angrily and held the ladder still.

"Yes, you did!" I yelled and lifted my hand to slap him in the face. He caught my arm mid air and held it in a firm grip.

"I would _not_ do that if I were you!" He said looking me in the eyes.

"Let go of me!" I demanded, returning his stare.

For a short moment his eyes flickered, then he let go of my arm.

"Whatever." He said and climbed back up the ladder. "I don't know about you, but I want to get this over and done with!"

We didn't speak another word, until we had finally finished. It felt like the afternoon lasted forever, and though Damon was a lot faster than I at washing windows, he sure wasn't as fast as he had been on the north side of the house. He did help me wash the last of the lower windows, and though I didn't tell him so, I was grateful that he did. I was feeling pretty cold – wet and tired as I was – and of course the sun had disappeared. I just wanted to go home.

"Done!" I said and walked towards the car. "I'll never wash another window in my life!" I said and sat down in the seat, feeling pretty exhausted. I probably looked it as well.

"'Least not until next time." Damon said with a sly smile and got into the car as well.

"Forget it. There won't be a next time." I said with a shiver and rubbed my arms with my hands.

"You're freezing!" Damon stated, touching my arm with his hand. It felt very soft and warm on my cold skin, but I shook it off anyway.

"Yeah, well, that's what happens when people "_accidentally_" drop a bucket of water on you!" I replied and started the engine.

"Come on, I said I was sorry, didn't I?"

"No, actually, you didn't!"

Damon took off his jacket and handed it to me.

"What am I supposed to do with that?" I asked, still trying to keep up the angry façade.

"Put it on! You're freezing!"

"No, thank you." I replied

"Don't be silly! You'll catch a cold!"

"Then I'll catch a cold!"

"Hannah, look at me!" Damon demanded and took a grip of my arm.

I turned to look him in the eyes, and I must admit that at that very moment something inside of me objected to being angry with him.

"Put on the jacket, so you won't catch a cold." He repeated, his blue eyes staring right into mine, though for a split second they seemed to flicker.

"Thanks." I mumbled and put on the jacket. It did feel a lot better. The jacket was still warm and there was a scent of Damon, which I suddenly remembered from Saturday night. It made me hesitate and take a deep breath, before finally backing down the drive way.

...

I agreed to give Damon a ride home, as Stefan wasn't waiting for him by the school. I did wonder how Damon even got to our school in the first place, but I didn't ask.

I stopped the car in front of the house and got out, as it was easier to take off the jacket that way. Damon got out as well and I handed him the jacket. I thought I saw a movement by the window, but when I looked no one was there.

"Thanks." I said quietly and handed Damon the jacket.

"You're welcome." He replied and eyed me with an expression I couldn't read.

"Why are you being like that?" I asked in confusion. I really didn't get him.

"Like what?"

"Why are you suddenly being nice to me?"

"First you call me an ass, and now I'm not allowed to be nice to you?" He replied with a roll of his eyes.

"Yes, I just don't get why? You don't like me, that's pretty obvious, so why this pretend-to-be-a-nice-guy act all of a sudden?"

I tried to keep eye contact with him, but his eyes flickered. Again.

"Because..." He hesitated, avoiding my glare."...Stefan told me to."

"Oh, now that _is _nice!" I said sarcastically and got into the car.

He took a grip of the car door, so I couldn't close it yet.

"If you can't handle the truth," he bent down and said in a very low voice, "don't ask for it!"

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><p><em>Hope you liked it. Please leave a review, I'd love that! Chapter three's coming up in a few days' time.<em>

_-Miss Sofie_


	3. Complications

_ **A/N: **Thanks for the reviews and the story alerts! Thank you, Dawnie-7, my wonderful beta!_

_**Disclaimer**: I don't own any of the original TVD characters, nor the original plot._

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><p><strong>Chapter 3 - Complications<strong>

A couple of days went by with nothing unusual happening. I spent a lot of time at Lily's place, as she didn't get out much, apart from going to school. That, of course, _was_ a little unusual. After she sprained her ankle she was stuck with having to use crutches for at least a week to prevent any further damage, something she wasn't happy with.

One night, though, when I had just returned from a visit at Lily's place, someone was at the door. I let my dad answer, as I didn't expect it to be for me, not to mention he was already in the living room downstairs.

A moment late there was a soft knock on my bedroom door.

"Come on in." I said expecting to see my dad, but instead Elena opened the door.

"Your dad said I could go on up." She said looking a little uncomfortable.

"Elena? Hi!" I said surprisedly. "Yes, come on in!"

"I'm sorry it's a little late," she said as I motioned for her to sit down on my bed, "but you weren't home before."

"You were here earlier today?" I said wondering what she wanted from me. "My dad didn't say."

"No, he wasn't here. Your mom was."

"Oh." I said not really knowing what else to say. "Um, you want a cup of tea or something?"

"No. Thanks, but no. I just wanted to give you something."

"Me?" I said curiously. Well, duh, she was at my place, wasn't she?

"Yeah." She hesitated. "I know you might think it's a little strange, and I know we're not that close of friends anymore, but I'd like you to have this."

She pulled out a chain from her pocket, and when she held it up, I saw a silvery, somewhat vintage, old-fashioned looking pendant, which I couldn't help but think was probably something all the fashion magazines were calling the new 'it' thing back in style, something I would have no clue about seeing as how I wasn't exactly one to follow trends.

"Thanks," I hesitated, "but..."

"I know. It's a little weird. It's just that I feel I've been neglecting you the past months, maybe even years, and I want you to know that...I'm still your friend."

"You don't have to feel bad Elena." I said because I wasn't quite clear on what she was talking about. I took the necklace from her outreached hand. It was round, and it had an 'S' and a yellow stone on the front.

"We're still good, right?" She said sounding very insecure. For some reason I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for her. I always did, I guess.

"Of course we are." I said and looked at a chain around her neck. "Is that...?" I pointed to it.

"Oh." She said and pulled out her own necklace. "Yes. They're exactly the same."

"That's really sweet." I said and meant it, though I still wasn't sure why. We had never been close friends. We had never been enemies, either, but she definitely hadn't neglected me or our friendship. There had been nothing to neglect.

"I know." She said and rolled her eyes at me. "It's a little corny, but just take it as a token of our friendship!"

"Sure." I said again and gave her a quick hug. "And thanks!"

"You're welcome!" She said and got up. "It'd mean a lot to me if you'll wear it."

"Of course I will." I said and put it on right away. If it really meant that much to her, sure I'd wear it.

"Cool." She said and smiled at me. "I'm afraid I gotta go. Aunt Jenna's been pretty strict lately about how long we can stay out at night."

"Because of what happened to Vicky Donovan and Coach Tanner?" I asked, referring to a girl from school who had been attacked by a wild animal not so long ago, and our history teacher, who had also been attacked and, unfortunately, died.

It may just have been my imagination, but I thought I saw Elena stiffen for a split second. Then she sighed and moved on towards the door.

"Yeah, I think that's why." She replied with another small smile. "Well, thank you, Hannah, for being my friend!"

She gave me a hug and opened the door. "See you at school!"

With that she left my room and hurried down the stairs pretty quickly.

I went to the window and watched her leave. Her car was parked in front of the house, and as she crawled in the passenger side, someone turned on the engine. I thought I caught a glimpse of Stefan behind the wheel as they drove out onto the road again, but I couldn't be sure from this distance.

No matter what, this had been quite an unusual visit.

...

There was always some party or another on a Saturday night in Mystic Falls. Lily's ankle still wasn't doing that well, and no matter how much she complained and how big of a fuss she made, her parents wouldn't let her go out and, unbeknownst to them, get drunk while walking on crutches. And though I _did_ volunteer to stay at home and watch movies with her, I was happy when she told me not to, so I could go out like the rest of our friends.

This Saturday the party was at Stacey's place, since her parents were gone for the weekend.

Stacey was a girl one year our junior. She used to date Leonard, so I knew her through him and Lily. According to Lily, Stacey was still crazy about Leonard, but a couple of months ago she had cheated on him, and so he had dumped her in front of everybody in the school yard. I had been at home with the flu when that happened, so I hadn't seen it, but within a few hours I got several text messages from friends gossiping about it. Yep, that's Mystic Falls. And I was no better myself. I loved the drama!

Anyway, here I was, at Stacey's party, feeling a little alone without Lily, though I had plenty of other friends around me.

I was playing some beer pong with a couple of boys from school. I was standing next to Finn, Leonard's friend, and he was being pretty attentive towards me. I, on the other hand, had my attention at the front entrance. Elena and Stefan were standing there, obviously whispering about something, and for some reason I had a feeling they were talking about me. Elena kept looking in my direction now and again, with a worried expression on her face. Stefan looked as if he was trying to calm her down, when someone entered and caught his attention.

That someone happened to be Damon.

They talked for a little while, Stefan with a frown on his forehead, and Damon looking very confident and – I must admit – _hot_ in his tight, black shirt and a pair of jeans.

Then, while I was staring pretty rudely at him, Damon shot me a glance, tipping his head to the side and smiling at me. I wasn't sure if it was a genuine smile or an annoyed one, and I quickly looked away, pretending to be focusing on the drinking game. Too late, though. Damon was coming my way.

"Hey, you!" He said as he reached the table, making everyone around the table look up. He was looking at Finn.

"Me?" Finn asked with a very confused look on his face.

"Do _you_ see me looking at anybody else?" Damon asked and rolled his eyes. "Yes, you! Go fetch me a drink! And one for the lady!"

Finn quickly abandoned his current drink and left, while Damon stood next to me with another one of those self-satisfied smiles.

"Now that was very rude!" I said and removed the arm that he casually placed around my shoulder.

"Sure it was. But he didn't object, did he?"

"No, you seem to have that effect on people." I mumbled, concentrating on not looking at him. I had a feeling that I was blushing. "What do you want?"

"Who's being rude now?" He asked, sounding a little too amused for me not to be annoyed with him. I guess that was also his intention.

"Seriously, Damon, what do you want from me?"

"Relax, Hannah, I just want to talk."

"About what?"

"Can we..." He said and pointed his head towards the door. "...Go somewhere to talk?"

I looked at him and sighed.

"Please?" He said looking at me with his irresistable, blue eyes.

"Fine!" I said at last, another sigh escaping me on purpose.

"Perfect!" He replied enthusiastically, taking my hand and pulling me away from the game, just as Finn returned with two drinks.

"Here you go." He said and handed the drinks to Damon.

Damon took both drinks, offering one of them to me. I shook my head, so he quickly downed both drinks himself.

"Thirsty?" I asked sarcastically.

"You have no idea!" He replied and put a hand on my back, giving me a gentle push towards the door.

I think the amount of alcohol I had consumed while playing beer pongwas beginning to catch up with me. I hadn't felt drunk inside the house, but outside in the chilly night, the world began to spin. Suddenly I didn't know where I was, just that I was with Damon. It seemed as if we had moved from the party and to some distant alley in a split second, but that, of course, wasn't possible, so I reckon I must have had some sort of blackout from being too drunk.

"Are you alright?" Damon said and planted me with my back against a wall. "You're not gonna throw up on me, are you?"

The world stopped spinning as I looked at him. He leaned his arm against the wall right next to my head and looked me in the eyes.

"I feel perfectly fine, thank you." I said an gazed back at him. I couldn't help but feeling _very_ attracted to him.

He didn't have time to reply, as I reached out to kiss him, drunk as I was. I was a little surprised as he returned my kiss, but I quickly forgot.

"Hannah..." He said and broke off the kiss, his face still very close to mine. "Come home with me tonight."

"Uh-huh." I said and nodded, and then kissed him again.

Needless to say, we ended up in Damon's bedroom, again. No, wait... The first time we didn't get any further than to the couch in the living room. But that, of course, I didn't really remember.

Damon pulled my vest over my head and cursed because I was wearing a shirt underneath it. I couldn't help but give a little laugh, as the impatient look on his face was rather cute. I unbottoned his shirt, and my hands found his naked chest. He stripped off the shirt and lay down on the bed, pulling me down to lay upon him. He gave me a long and hungry kiss while unbottoning my shirt. Then, suddenly, there was a hissing sound, and as we broke the kiss and I looked down, my necklace had fallen out onto his chest, apparently scorching his skin.

Damon pushed me away with extreme force and jumped to his feet so fast that I could barely see what happened.

"Where did you get that?" He asked with wide eyes, hiding the wound on his chest with his hand.

"What happened? Are you okay?" I asked and got up. He backed away from me as I took a few steps towards him.

"Where did you get that?" He asked again, his eyes fixed on the pendant.

"Elena gave it to me. It's just a friendship thing." I said and moved closer to him again. This time he didn't back away. "Seriously, let me take a look at that."

"It's nothing." He said and kept his hand resting on his chest.

"Come on!" I said and took his hand, making him remove it. It revealed nothing, though. The skin on his chest was in perfect condition where it had been scorched less than a minute ago.

"But...?" I said and couldn't believe my eyes. "It burnt you. You should have a scar!"

"Nothing happened." Damon replied and pulled his hand out of mine. "You're just drunk."

"But..."

"Seriously, Hannah, nothing happened."

"Then why did you jump out of bed?"

"I just..." He hesitated. "That necklace just reminded me of something. My mother had one almost exactly like it. I guess I just got spooked."

"Hm..." I said not too convinced that he was telling the truth as I sat back down on his bed. I wasn't gonna press the matter, though. Not right now, anyway.

"Were you..." Damon began again, looking at me as in disbelief. "Were you wearing that necklace when I asked you to come home with me?"

"Yeah. I've been wearing it all night." I said, not really knowing why that was important.

"Hm." Damon said with a flicker of his eyes. For a moment he seemed lost in his own thoughts. "That kind of complicates things."

"What?" I said, reaching out for him. I wanted him to come back to bed.

He backed away again.

"I think this was a really bad idea." He said and picked his shirt up from the floor. "Let's just forget about it."

"_What_?" I exclaimed, beginning to feel a little impatient with him.

"I'm sorry, but can we just pretend nothing happened?" He asked, for once looking genuine and almost frightened.

"I don't believe this!" I said and bottoned my shirt. "You really _are_ a jerk!"

He caught my hand and made me turn around to face him.

"I really _am _sorry." He said and held my gaze. "I'm begging you. Can we, _please_, forget about this night?"

I sighed.

"I know, I really owe you one, but I just can't do this right now."

"Alright." I mumbled and shook my head. He looked so much like a lost child that I just couldn't stay mad at him.

"Come on, I'll call you a cab." Damon said and walked out of the room.

"Gee, thanks!" I said sarcastically and followed him downstairs.

...

The next morning brought no hangover, though I had expected it to. My head felt perfectly clear, but the air in my bed room reeked of acohol, so I got up an opened the window, letting the sun and the fresh air inside. Then I turned on the computer and went to brush my teeth.

Staring in the mirror, I couldn't forget about the sound I had heard when my necklace hit Damon's chest, nor the look of his scorched skin. It had seemed so real, vivid. I know I had probably just been too drunk and was imagining things – well obviously I had, since his skin was perfectly fine a moment later – but I couldn't help but be curious.

I went back to my bedroom and sat down by the computer. Cleopatra, my jet black cat, jumped up and made herself comfortable on my lap.

"Let's see what we can find, Cleo." I said and stroked her back with my left hand, while using the mouse with my right.

I googled a few words, starting with _allergy_,_ nickel_,and _metal_. Then I tried with _iron, silver_, and a few other metals. I didn't really come to any conclusions, though nickel allergy seemed to be pretty normal. And Damon's skin had looked pretty much like the red blisters on the pictures I found on Google. If it hadn't been for the fact that the symptoms for nickel allergy would show within a couple of days, and not seconds, I would've believed that this was what Damon suffered from.

Then I googled _scorched_ _skin_, and found a disease that also seemed to fit. Again, the symptoms were pretty much what Damon's had been, but they didn't come from contact with metal or anything else, as it was an air-borne virus.

I sighed and leaned back in the chair, letting Cleopatra jump off my lap.

"Nothing useful, Cleo, I guess I really was just too drunk last night." I said and turned my head to look at her. She was sneaking across the floor, her eyes fixed on something by the window. As I looked up, I saw a black bird sitting on the windowsill, apparently watching me or Cleopatra.

"What're _you_ doing here?" I asked the crow, not expecting a reply. As I got up, Cleopatra jumped, scaring off the bird.

I looked out the window to see where the crow went, but it was nowhere to be seen. The sun had disappared and it had become quite foggy pretty quickly, and it felt a little cold. I closed the window with a shiver and turned around to go back to my computer. I let out a scream of surprise, as something clashed against my window. I turned around to see a couple of black feathers stuck on the outside windowsill, and I felt a shiver down my back.

I closed the curtains and hurried back under my blanket, hoping that when I woke up later I would be able to laugh at myself for being spooked by a bird.

Right now, though, I just wanted to hide.

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><p><em>Hope you liked it. <em>I_ like reviews! ;o)_

_- Miss Sofie_


	4. Halloween

**Chapter 4 – Halloween**

_**A/N:** I'm sorry for the long wait for an update, but I think I'm very well excused. My mare gave birth to a beautiful filly last week, and it's been taking up pretty much all of my time the past week, but I'll try to do better with the next chapter. _

_Thanks for alle the reviews, story alerts, and favourites! I am grateful for each and everyone of them!_

_Thanks to **Dawnie-7**, the best beta in the world, though she doesn't think so herself!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries, the original TVD characters nor the original TVD plot._

_Happy reading! :o)_

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><p>As Halloween drew near, Lily and I spent quite a lot of time talking about different costumes to wear, and how to make them both scary and sexy at the same time. There would, of course, be a Halloween party, and since Lily's foot was almost completely healed, there was going to be nothing stopping us from going.<p>

Lily's mom was pretty good at sewing and making clothes, so when we had decided what to wear, we spent our evenings at Lily's place helping her mom make our dresses.

Alright, so we didn't really help that much. We watched her sew, and we stayed inside, so whenever she needed one of us to try on a dress, we wouldn't be far away.

She was making a costume for Leonard as well. He would be going as the clown from Stephen King's _It_. Not very original, but neither was my costume. I would be going as a fairy with wings and all. Not exactly scary, but at least my dress would be tight and low-necked, and, hopefully, sexy.

Lily would be going as a vampire, in a short, black dress, with a pale face, and very red lips. My dress would be longer, though not equally long in both sides, light blue with a dark blue scarf on the hip, and wings made from a dark blue and somewhat tranparent fabric. The wings were really cool. Leonard helped shape the wire for them, and the result was far better than expected.

On the night of the party, Lily and I got dressed at my place. We helped each other with the make-up, as it would have to be somewhat different from what we were used to. Lily helped me put small, silvery stones on my temples, starting with a single one at the corner of my eyes and ending out in several stones closer to my ears. I was totally happy with the result of the make-up and stones, and I hardly recognised myself in the mirror.

"You'll need some jewelry." Lily said as she caught my eye in the mirror. "Your neck is too bare."

I took out the necklace from Elena, though I hadn't planned on wearing it tonight. I was a little afraid that people would think it was too old-fashioned.

"Think this would look okay?" I asked and put it on without waiting for a reply.

"It's perfect!" Lily said and took a closer look at it. "I really don't get why you don't like it."

I hadn't told her about the incident with Damon, yet. She knew, of course, that I had left with him that night, but I hadn't told her what I thought I had seen.

"I do like it." I said and got a little lost in my thoughts. "I wonder what it's made of."

"Probably silver." Lily said and took the pendant in her hand to take a closer look at it. "There's no sign of brand on it, and it definitely wasn't made of plastic."

"Silver...hm...do we know about anything that can cause the skin to scorch from silver?"

"Why? Did it scorch you?"

"No." I said and hesitated. Then I decided to tell Lily what had happened. "That night, with Damon, it was, like, the pendant scorched his skin. I know it sounds stupid, but he just jumped out of bed as if he got scared or something."

"Really?" Lily said, obviously not believing a word I said.

"I don't know." I said and sighed. "He had no wound afterwards, but he seemed pretty upset."

It made Lily laugh.

"Well, maybe he's a werewolf!" She teased. "I hear they're not too good around silver. And by the next full moon, I'm sure, he'll have you completely under his spell!"

I rolled my eyes at her and gave a little laugh. I didn't believe in that kind of stuff, but talking about it did make me feel a little uncomfortable.

"What's the smell, by the way?" Lily asked letting go of the necklace again. "It kinda smells like tea. Did you spray your perfume on it?"

I held the pendant close to my nose, and sniffed it. I hadn't noticed before, but yes, it did smell like tea.

"No, I didn't. Never noticed the smell before."

"Hm...that's weird." She said and put on her shoes. "Ready to go?"

"Sure." I replied and left the room, careful not to damage my wings.

…

You would have thought the whole town had come to attend the school's annual Halloween Party. There were people crowed everywhere, and everyone kept bumping into my wings. Or my wings kept bumping into everyone. There wasn't much room for dancing, and because of my wings I couldn't sit down anywhere. Hadn't really thought of that when chosing my costume. So for a while Lily and I hung out at the bar, trying to convince the bartender that we were old enough to drink. It didn't work, though, especially as they didn't serve any alcohol at all.

Someone or something tugged at one of my wings, and as I turned around I found a clown and a wizard looking at me.

"Hey guys!" I said with a smile at Leonard and Finn. "Don't wreck my wings!"

"You look gorgeous!" Finn said still staring at me.

"Of course she does!" Leonard said with a smile. "I made the wings!"

"You _helped_ making the wings!" Lily corrected her younger brother, apparently annoyed with his presence.

"And no matter how much I love my wings, I'd wish I had chosen something else to wear." I smiled, trying not to show how uncomfortable Finn's staring made me feel. "Can't do anything with those stuck to my back!"

"That sucks, I would've asked you to dance with me!" Leonard said with an amused look at Finn.

The latter finally stopped staring at me as Jeremy came over, putting an arm around Finn's shoulder.

"Have you seen Vicky anywhere?" He asked casually, then he noticed me. "Oh, hi Hannah, you look beautiful tonight. Have you seen my sister?"

"No. Not recently." I replied. "And thanks."

"I don't think Vicky's here, Jer." Leonard said. "Have you spoken to her lately?"

"She told me to meet her here." Jeremy replied. Then he left to continue his search for her.

"Vicky?" I asked with a frown. "Vicky and Jeremy?"

That was something I hadn't heard about before. I knew she had been with Tyler not so long ago, and I knew she had been missing for a couple of days lately, but I knew nothing about her and Jeremy.

"They've been together for a little while." Leonard replied. "But she disappeared when those kids OD'ed at the cementary. Jeremy was going out of his mind while she was gone, and suddenly she showed up, apparently high on drugs, and she didn't remember what had happened."

"I knew she disappeared, but I never knew that she had anything to do with those people who OD'ed."

"No one really knows if she did, I guess." Leonard said. "But I heard Sheriff Forbes found her purse with her ID and everything, right by the place where they found the other ones dead."

"Must've been terrible for Jeremy." I said and stopped listening, not because I didn't care, but because Damon had arrived. He was standing close to the opposite wall, looking at me through the room. I raised my hand and mouthed a "hi" to him, and he smiled back at me. Then he went into the crowd and disappeared from sight. Though I didn't want to, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of disappointment as he didn't come over to talk. I searched the room with my eyes, but I couldn't find him anywhere.

"Hannah?" Leonard's voice brought me back to reality.

"Sorry." I said and tried to concentrate. "What were you saying?"

"Finn's got some booze in his car. Wanna come?"

"Of course she does!" Lily said and dragged me along. My wings accidentally bumped into Finn as she did so.

"Watch it, Finn!" Leonard said with a chuckle, protecting _his_ precious wings. Finn blushed and kept his distance, though it hadn't been his fault at all. I sort of felt a little sorry for him, though I knew Leonard was only teasing him.

It's amazing how drunk under-aged people can get at a party where they don't serve alcohol. It seemed like everybody kept alchol hidden in their cars or in their friends' cars, and with the couple of drinks Lily and I had had before leaving for the party, it didn't take that much to get us drunk. I wasn't at all as drunk as I had been at the last party, but I was drunk enough to decide that I wanted to go talk to Damon.

I left Lily and the boys outside and went inside to look for him. I found him sitting at the 'bar' the school had allowed to be set up along with the zero alcohol policy.

"Hello Damon." I said and smiled at him.

He looked at me without smiling, and for a few seconds I thought he was mad at me, though I had no idea why.

"Hey." He replied and then got the attention of the 'bartender'.

"Another one of these." He said and held forth his glass. "And what do you want, Hannah?"

He looked at me, still not smiling, and I began to feel really uncomfortable.

"Just...wanted to say hello." I said disappointed and turned around to leave.

Damon grabbed me by the shoulder and made me turn back to face him.

"I mean, what do you want to _drink_?" He rolled his eyes at me and finally gave a little smile.

"Oh." I said and felt stupid. "Just get me whatever you're drinking."

"Two of these." He said to the bartender. Damon then pulled a flask from his jacket and poured some mysterious liquor into the cups.

"Thanks." I said as Damon handed me the drink.

He nodded in reply.

"So, what're you supposed to be?" I teased, referring to his lack of costume. He was wearing a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and his black leather jacket.

"What do you think?" He asked taking a swallow from his drink.

"If I didn't know you better, I'd say you were Santa Claus."

"Ha ha, that's so funny!" He replied sarcastically. At least he was smiling now.

"And what're you supposed to be? A fairy princess or something?"

"I'd be satisfied with just fairy, but I don't mind the princess addition."

For a very short moment I thought I saw him looking at my necklace, then we were interrupted by Leonard, who was smiling widely in his clown costume, not exactly looking as scary as he was supposed to.

"Miss Cohen," he said and made a bow, "would you care to dance?"

I couldn't help laughing, and I would've said yes if it wasn't for Damon, but I didn't want to leave him just yet.

"Thanks Leo, but I can't." I said and pointed my head backwards. "Wings!"

"Well, some other time, then." He said and made another bow before he left.

I was still smiling as I looked back at Damon.

"Ugh! I _hate_ clowns." He said with a disgusted look on his face.

"What's the matter? You're scared of clowns?" I said feeling slightly amused. And a little drunk.

"No. I just think they're _stupid_!" He snorted and took another swallow of his drink. "So, Cohen, huh?"

"That's correct." I said and drew a stool closer to him, so I could sit down for a while.

"Would that, by any chance, be Jewish?"

"It would."

"You're Jewish?"

"My grandparents were."

"Hm. You're not a believer?"

"Not exactly, no."

"You don't believe in anything?"

"Depends... I believe there's a natural explanation for everything."

"Everything? So you don't believe in ghosts?"

I gave a little laugh.

"No."

"Werewolves?"

"Nope!"

"Vampires?"

"Sorry, no."

"Hm..._boring_!" He rolled his eyes at me. A thing he seemed to do quite a lot.

"What do you believe in?" I asked expectantly.

"Survival of the fittest!" He replied and emptied his drink with a sly smile at me.

Before I had a chance to think about a suitable reply, Damon's phone rang. He answered it and spoke a few words, then he hung up and got off the stool.

"Gotta go." He said with a quick glance at me and left. It made me feel both surprised and disappointed at the same time. I had hoped he would be leaving with me tonight, and if not, that he wouldn't be leaving this soon nor without saying a proper goodbye.

He wasn't exactly easy to figure out.

…

When I was about to get into the shower the next morning, my eyes fell on the necklace around my neck. Usually, I would take it off when showering, and this morning was no different. As I opened the lock and pulled it off, the scent of tea reached my nostrils. I took a closer look at the pendant, which was rather thick and could possibly contain a few leaves of tea or whatever it was. It didn't weigh much, and it had a line all way round, as if it could be opened. I tried opening it with the nail on my thumb, but my nail broke and made me swear out loud. Then I tried with a nail file, and suddenly the pendant burst open, dust green leaves shattering over the table. I scrutinized one of them but didn't recognise it. I would have to go ask my dad about it. He was really good at everything that had to do with plants and insects and nature in general.

"Looks like som kind of vervain." My dad said taking off his glasses and looking up at me. He had been reading his paper in the living room, but he would never mind taking a little time off to talk to his favourite daughter (who was, also, his only daughter).

"Vervain?" I said and frowned at the leaves in my hand. Why were they in my necklace?

"I believe the latin name for vervain would be _verbena_." He continued. "Where did you find that?"

"It was in this necklace I got from Elena." I said without showing it to him. For some reason I didn't want him to see the necklace. I don't know why.

"Well, then Elena probably wants to take good care of you. Vervain is known for it's healing qualities, and centuries ago people believed it to keep evil spirits away."

"Evil spirits? But she doesn't even believe in that sort of thing."

"And neither do I. But it's still a nice gesture." My dad smiled and put on his glasses again.

That was my cue. I let him read his paper and went back to my room, and turned on the computer as soon as I got there.

This time I googled a little differently. Instead of the metals I had searched for in combination with _allergy_ and _scorched skin_, I now typed _vervain_ and _verbena_. But there was nothing that indicated that vervain could've caused the burning of Damon's skin, quite the opposite, actually, as vervain was very commonly used to heal burn wounds, scorched skin, blisters and so on.

The only thing I found was articles on old folklore telling stories about how vervain was used to drive out all evil and to keep evil creatures away. That didn't exactly help much.

Well, I'd probably just have to let it go and face the fact that I had been way too drunk when making out with Damon. Nothing had happened, it had all been in my head.

…

A couple of days later I was walking home from Lily's place. It was almost midnight (my parents would be furious at me for coming home this late), and it was pretty dark outside. The sky was cloudy, and there was a chill in the air that made me shiver and pull up my jacket.

I was right beneath a lamp post when something odd happened. A dark silhuette seemed to appear from out of nowhere, right in front of me on the street. The person, whether it was a he or a she, was apparently staring at me, but not uttering a word.

The silhuette came closer, and my heart began to pound. Suddenly the person sped up, grabbed me by the neck and pressed me up against the lamp post.

Unfortunately, I didn't reach to see the face, as I fainted from the pressure on my throat and lack of air.

When I woke up, I had no idea where I was. I was lying on something soft, a bed or a couch or something, and when I opened my eyes and looked around, the gloomy surroundings seemed somewhat familiar, though I didn't remember where I had seen it before. The room was only dimly lit by candles on the wall, and it was still dark outside, so I couldn't see that much of it.

I sat up in what I now saw was a couch, and searched for the door. Just when I found it, someone opened it from the outside, and my heart started pounding wildly. At first I saw a dark silhuette standing in the doorway, then he stepped inside.

"Hello Hannah!" He said with a sly smile.

Damon.

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><p><em>If you liked it, please review! If you didn't like it, please review! ;o)<em>

_- Miss Sofie_


	5. Tree Climbing with Damon

_**A/N:** Thank you for all of your reviews, alerts, and favourites! And sorry for the long update time. To make up for it, I just posted a TVD one-shot, which I hope you'll like, and the next chapter of this story will be up soon as well._

_Thanks to **Dawnie-7**, as always, for helping me out with the language issues and for letting me know when to finish a chapter and start a new one! ;o)_

_**Disclaimer:** I own nothing but my OCs._

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><p><strong>Chapter 5 – Tree Climbing with Damon<strong>

"You!" I exclaimed with wide eyes as Damon entered the room. I got up from the couch I had woken up in, and backed away from him. I had no idea what he wanted from me, but I did know that whatever feeling I had had for him, had completely vanished.

"Stay away from me!" I yelled as he came towards me.

He tilted his head with a frown, but he did stop on the spot.

"You're scared of me!" He stated surprisingly. "Who told you?"

"Told me what?" I asked and backed further away from him, though slowly this time. I didn't dare take my eyes off of him.

"Wait..? You're not scared of me because..."

"What're you talking about?" I asked rather hysterically. "You tried to strangle me!"

"Ah..._that_." He said as if it was no big deal. "That wasn't me."

"Right." I said not believing a word he said. "Then how did I end up here? With you?"

"I brought you home with me right after I had saved you from the stranger who was attacking you!"

"Why did you bring me here?"

"I think you mean _thank you_, and in that case, you're welcome!" He said with a cheeky smile. "By the way, if you keep backing away from me, you'll hit the book..."

My elbow hit something behind me, and I almost stumbled over from the shock of it.

"...shelf!" He finished, rolling his eyes.

"Thank you." I mumbled and rubbed my elbow. It hurt pretty bad, but I didn't want to let Damon see _that_.

"And I brought you here because I have no idea where you live." He said and looked away from me for a moment. "I already called Elena. And Stefan. But they didn't answer their phones."

I relaxed a little and allowed myself to take a look around the room. There, on the table next to the couch, lay something familiar.

"Is that my purse?" I asked with a frown.

"Yeah."

"Why would you...?"

"I told you. I don't know where you live. And I still don't know. Don't IDs come with addresses these days?"

"You saw my ID?" I asked horrified.

"Yes, I did, _Jamaica_!" He said in an amused voice. "Seriously? _Hannah Jamaica_?"

"Hippie parents!" I explained with a sigh. "And would you, please, not tell anyone?"

"Not too sure about that." He teased and sat down on the couch. Then he turned serious. "Now, tell me, what happened?"

"I don't really know." I said and sat down next to him, not feeling scared anymore. "This...person...just came up to me like out of nowhere and tried to strangle me."

"What did he look like?"

"I don't even know if it was a _he_. I never saw the face. I blacked out."

"Yeah. I noticed." He said with a teasing smile, looking at me through the corner of his eye.

"Oh, shut up!" I said and nudged him in the side. I was feeling a lot better than a moment ago. He didn't seem dangerous at all anymore. Just...cute. Hot and cute. And a little mysterious.

"Didn't _you_ see him?"

"No, he, or 'it', I should say, ran away when I stopped the car and got out."

"What were you doing there?"

"Apparently rescuing a damsel in distress!" He said with another teasing smile at me.

"Be serious!" I exclaimed with a smile and another nudge. Then there was some noise at the door.

"Damon?" I heard Elena's voice call out.

"In here!" Damon yelled back, not bothering to get up.

The door opened and Elena burst in, closely followed by Stefan.

"Oh my God, Hannah, are you alright?" Elena exclaimed and hurried over to me.

"Hello kids." Stefan said with an amused smile. He looked like someone who had overheard Damon teasing me, and me trying to flirt with him, but of course that wasn't possible.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied, and the worried expression on Elena's face almost disappeared.

"Why didn't you answer your phones?" Damon asked with a smirk at Stefan.

"Why didn't you answer yours?" Stefan shot back at him.

Damon's hand shot to the pocket in his pants, but obviously didn't find his phone.

"Dammit!" He said less pleased with himself than a moment ago. "Must've left it in my room."

Stefan chuckled, which made Damon look pretty gloomy.

"Come on, guys!" Elena said still looking a little worried. "Can we focus on Hannah for a moment?"

"I'm fine." I said and meant it. My throat felt a little sore, but that was all.

"But you were attacked!"

"Yeah." I agreed.

"You know who the attacker was?" Stefan asked, now much more serious than before.

"No. I didn't see the face."

"What about clothes?"

"No, not really... Maybe they were black?"

"Hair? Scent? Anything?" Elena asked.

"No, nothing. Except..."

"What?" Damon asked attentively.

"It sounds stupid, but he, or she, moved really fast. Almost like they were flying or sliding towards me." I sighed and _felt_ stupid.

"No, it's not stupid." Stefan said with a frown. "Obviously, your mind was playing tricks on you because of the stressful situation, but it's definitely not stupid."

"Shouldn't I be telling this to the police instead?" I asked, reaching for my phone.

Damon and Stefan exchanged glances, then Stefan said:

"I don't think it'll be of any use. If you have no idea what the attacker looks like, and you're not hurt, I don't think they'll do anything about it."

"Nah, they won't." Damon agreed. "But I can always ask Sheriff Forbes tomorrow if she wants to talk to you."

"Really?" I asked in disbelief and left my phone in my pocket. They didn't want me to go to the police?

"Yeah. I think they're right." Elena said. "Caroline once told me that they never do anything about things like this, when they have nothing to identify the assailant."

Caroline's mom was the town sheriff. I didn't know her very well, but, apparently, Damon did. I know he used to date Caroline, when he first moved here, but that was for a very short while, I think. And I doubt that would've been long enough to make him close friends with her mom. Well, I guess I didn't really know him that well myself, yet.

Damon drove me home that night. It was almost 2 in the morning, and I felt really bad about not calling my parents and telling them where I was. With everything that had happened, I'd just completely forgotten about it.

The sheriff's car was parked outside the house when we got there. Damon parked his car a little away from the house without further explanation.

"My parents are _so_ gonna kill me!" I sighed and tried to think of an explanation they'd be happy with.

"Then lie to them." Damon suggested, as if it was no big deal.

"What?"

"Lie to them. Fool them. Make them believe you've been asleep in your room for hours."

"I can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"How would I get past them?"

"Through your bed room window."

"It's on the second floor! I can't reach it from the ground!"

"Then...climb the tree outside your window and jump!"

"Not sure I can do that. Wait..." I said and hesitated. "...How do you know there's a tree outside my window?"

I think I saw Damon's eyes flicker for a moment, but it was so dark in the car that I couldn't tell for sure.

"You got trees all around your house, hun!" He said with a cocky smile and a roll of his eyes. "And I'll help you climb it."

And so he did.

I wasn't exactly good at climbing trees, but Damon seemed to have done it plenty of times before. I was quite impressed with his ability to both climb and hoist me up with him at the same time, and still make it seem so easy. Soon we were both standing on the thick branch closest to my window, and I was relieved to see that I had left the window open.

"All you gotta do now is jump!" Damon whispered and pushed me a little forwards.

"Are you crazy?" I exclaimed a little too loud and made Damon shush me with a roll of his eyes.

"Got a better idea?" He asked, his face pretty close to mine. He looked sort of angry, or maybe worried, I couldn't tell in the dark.

"They'll hear the noise downstairs, if I jump!" I said and looked into Damon's eyes. They looked almost black in the dark.

"You're right." He said, still looking me in the eyes, but apparently lost in thought.

Then he grabbed me around the waist.

"Hold on tight!" He said and lifted me up. Boy, was he strong! He literally just swept me off my feet!

"What're you doing?" I exclaimed in a loud whisper, but as he got ready to jump, I threw my arms around him, closing my eyes and hoping for the best.

I felt him move and a moment later I felt ground (or whatever it was) beneath my feet again. I swayed a little but Damon supported me, and as I opened my eyes, we were sitting on the windowsill.

I widened my eyes in disbelief.

"How did you...? How did we do that?" I asked and crawled inside. Damon didn't follow.

"Just one of my many skills!" Damon said very pleased with himself. "Now get into one of your sexy, little nightgowns and go tell you parents you've been here the whole time!"

"Who says I've got sexy, little night gowns?" I asked and turned around to go find a t-shirt to sleep in.

"You sleep naked?" Damon asked in a teasing voice.

I turned back to face him and throw a remark back at him, but he was no longer there. I hurried to the window to see if he had fallen down, but he was nowhere to be seen. It was almost as if he had vanished completely.

Well, he had done his part, now I just had to play mine convincingly!

I took off my clothes, put on a t-shirt and messed up my hair before going downstairs. I yawned a few times trying to look sleepy before entering the kitchen. Mom and Dad were out there with Sheriff Forbes. Mom's voice sounded very shrill when she saw me for the first time.

"Oh my God! Hannah!" My mom exclaimed as I entered. "Are you alright?"

All three of them got up from their chairs and Mom hurried over to me.

"I'm fine." I said and faked another yawn. "What's going on?"

"Where have you been?" My dad asked, more worried than angry.

"Asleep. In my bed." I replied, pretending to sound sleepy.

"I was up there an hour ago!" My mom said. "You weren't in your bed!"

"I went to the bathroom at some time." I said and rubbed my eyes. I felt the make-up on my hands. Dammit! I'd forgot to remove it before going downstairs.

"Must've been when I went up to you, then." My mom said, calming down a bit.

"You always go to bed with your make-up on?" Sheriff Forbes asked cautiously. The three of them looked at me, expectantly.

"No, but I got home from Lily's place a little late. I was so tired I just crawled into bed without even washing up." I lied. Then I looked at my parents. "And I thought you'd already gone to bed. That's why I didn't say anything when I got home."

"Alright." My dad said with an embarrassed look at the Sheriff. "I'm very sorry for calling you up in the middle of the night. Everything seems to be just fine."

"No problem, Mr. Cohen." Sheriff Forbes replied and shook hands with my parents. "I'll see you around."

When she'd left, my dad poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down by the table again. My mom went upstairs to get ready to go to bed.

"The only thing I don't get," my dad suddenly said, without looking up at me. "is how you managed to sneak past us without being noticed. He must be some guy, for you to make such an effort."

With that he finally looked up at me with a small smile playing on his lips, but he said nothing further.

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><p><em><strong>AN:**__ Thanks for reading, now all you'll have to do is review, and the next chapter will be up soon! ;o)_

_- Miss Sofie_


	6. It's My Party

_**A/N: **Hello again and sorry for the long wait. To make up for it you'll get two chapters today, and I'll post another one-shot in a little while, hopefully today as well._

_Thanks for the reviews, the alerts and the favourites. Love you guys!_

_Thanks to **Dawnie-7**, my fantastic beta, for correcting all of my errors without a single complaint! :o)_

_**Disclaimer:** I own nothing but my own fictional characters._

_- Miss Sofie_

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><p><strong>Chapter 6 – It's My Party<strong>

The next couple of weeks I didn't feel like walking alone much, especially not at night. To make the situation even worse, Vicky Donovan disappeared again. Rumor had it that she had left town because of all that had happened to her lately, but I had a feeling it wasn't the whole truth. Apparently, she had told Jeremy that she was leaving, but no one else had heard anything from her, not even her brother, Matt. I must admit I found it all a little suspicious, but it was really none of my business, so I left it at that.

We had a new history teacher at school. Alaric Saltzman replaced Coach Tanner who had died from his injuries after the animal attack earlier in the fall. I don't think that Mr. Saltzman was a football coach too like Tanner had been, but he was rather young and good-looking, and it only took him a few history lessons to make Lily completely obsessed with him, though, of course, he didn't do it on purpose.

Lily would make me come with her every time she'd walk past the teachers' lounge, hoping to get a glimpse of him. And in our history class, she would sit up front, which she had never done before, and of course she made me sit next to her. After a while I began to feel a little embarrassed, but I didn't tell her. This crush of hers would probably wear off after a while. Her crushes usually didn't last long.

One afternoon she asked me go to the grill with her. She had heard somewhere that Mr. Saltzman came there a lot. I had never seen him there, but then again, I hadn't come to the grill much lately.

She convinced me to go, and as we entered, the first person we met was a very gloomy-looking Elena.

"What's up?" I asked her, ignoring Lily tugging at my sleeve to make me follow her.

"That's up." She said and looked at Stefan, who was playing pool with a blonde girl I didn't know.

"Who's she?" I asked and noticed Damon at a table. He was watching the girl, too.

"Stefan's old friend. Apparently, she's here for his birthday."

"It's his birthday today? I didn't know."

"He doesn't tell people that kind of stuff about himself."

"But she's just a friend?"

"That's what _he_ says."

"I'm sure he wouldn't lie to you." I tried to comfort her.

"There's a lot you don't know about Stefan." She mumbled.

I failed to concentrate any further, as Damon came towards me, an almost empty glass in his hand.

"Hello _Maica_!" He said as he passed me on his way to the bar.

"Don't you dare!" I hissed in reply, but he just threw a cocky smile at me and continued past me.

"What was that all about?" Elena asked curiously.

"It's nothing." I said and noticed Stefan's blonde friend leaving the pool table. Elena noticed too, which made her forget about my reaction to Damon's _hello._

The girl walked up to the bar and said something to Damon. She was very pretty, and I didn't like the way she seemed to try to flirt with him. I couldn't see if he was flirting with her, too, as I could only see the backside of him. A few moments later, though, the girl came towards me and Elena, carrying three drinks in her hands.

Damon caught my eye and motioned for me to join him at the bar, and as the blonde seemed to focus on Elena, I thought I'd better leave the two of them alone.

"Who's she?" I asked as I reached Damon.

"The cute, blonde girl?" He replied with a smile I couldn't read. "That would be Lexi. Stefan's best buddy."

"I thought you were his best buddy?"

"Me? And my pathetic baby brother? You gotta be kidding me!" Damon snorted and emptied his drink. "Want one of these?"

"No, thank you." I said and noticed Damon watching Elena and Lexi. "School tomorrow."

"Suit yourself." He replied and got another drink for himself.

"She's pretty." I stated looking at Lexi. "I wonder what they're talking about. I don't think Elena likes her too much."

Damon was watching the two girls talking again and didn't care to look at me when replying.

"That is so girlish! You guys...eh...girls...are always jealous. There's absolutely _no_ chance that Stefan would ever get it on with Lexi, though he's had _plenty_ of chances. Elena has no need to worry."

"Good for her." I replied feeling slightly jealous myself. Didn't _he_ sound a little jealous?

"Oh no, Hannah, really?" He sighed and looked at me for the first time in a while. "Don't tell me that _you're_ jealous, too? Doesn't suit you, you know."

"I'm not!" I exclaimed, but I'm pretty sure I blushed.

"Me and Lexi? Ugh...gross! It's even worse than me and Stefan being best buddies!"

He hesitated for a moment.

"Me and _you_? Definitely not gross, but _so_ out of line!"

"Eh...?" I said at a loss for words.

"Gotta go deal with someone. See you later." He said and gave me a peck on the cheek. "Ciao, señorita!"

Seriously? That man was disturbed!

I went home early that night, as we had to go to school the next day. Lily was quite disappointed that we hadn't seen Mr. Saltzman at the grill, and since she got bored, she had invited everyone she knew to a party at my house the next weekend, her usual go to back up plan. My parents would be out of town, and Lily and I had been talking about inviting a few friends over, but now it seemed that it was going to be a full on party. Oh well, who didn't like parties? Except for parents, of course!

…

My parents left on Friday, and Lily and I spent most of Saturday preparing for the party. I know it would've been enough with just loud music and plenty of alcohol to keep a party going, but I had always liked to decorate and arrange, though I wasn't very good at it. After a couple of hours with one decoration disaster after the other, Lily suggested that we call Caroline. If anyone was good at arranging stuff, Caroline was the one.

I really didn't want to ask for Caroline's help. I hated the fact that she would feel pity for me because I couldn't do this on my own, and that she, at the same time, would love to get the attention as the party planner.

But in the end I messaged Elena and asked her to come early to help with the preparations. She promised to bring Bonnie and Caroline, and so the latter would have no idea that I had wanted her to come over early. I was rather satisfied with this plan of mine!

The rest of the afternoon went by pretty quickly. The five of us had a lot of fun while decorating the house, preparing snacks, a bowl of booze with some kind of green stuff that Caroline had brought, and, of course, gossiping about everyone in Mystic Falls. Even ourselves.

We talked all through dinner, and we completely forgot about the time. I hated to admit it, but I ended up really enjoying Caroline's company. But then again, I never really knew her that well to begin with, so it was a pleasant surprise.

At some point the topic was, as always, changed to cute guys.

When Caroline brought up me and Damon, someone _unfortunately_ rang the door bell, so I got off the hook when I had to go open the door.

It was Stefan.

"Hi Stefan!" I said and gave him a quick hug (well, we had already had a few drinks before he came).

"Hello Hannah." He said with a big smile. "I see you're in high spirits today!"

"I sure am." I replied happily and stepped back. "Come on in!"

"Thank you very much!" He said politely and handed me a small present.

"Uh...you shouldn't have!" I said in surprise, but I took it anyway.

"That's just Stefan." I heard Elena say behind me. "Always polite. Hey Stef!"

She gave him a quick kiss and I looked away, concentrating on the gift. It contained 3 small bottles of an almost clear liquid.

"It's home brew." He said as I looked at the bottle tops, which had clearly been opened before.

"Ah, that explains it!" I said and opened one of them. I sniffed it and immediately there was a strong smell of alcohol. Then, after a couple of seconds, I could smell something else through the alcohol.

"What is this?" I asked with a questioning look at Stefan. "It smells like tea or something."

"Ah...not bad!" He replied with a nod and a smile at me. "It's herb schnapps. A family recipe."

"Interesting." I said and meant it. "Thanks again!"

"You're welcome." Stefan replied, and then the door bell rang again.

Within the next couple of hours, the house filled with guests. I wasn't sure if Damon would show up, but I hoped so. I hadn't exactly invited him, but Lily had. At least he would know about the party.

But he did. A little late, though, but I didn't care as long as he did come.

"Hey Maica!" He said with a big, charming smile as I opened the door. I couldn't really figure if he was just pretending.

"Hey Mon!" I replied and giggled. I was pretty drunk, I suppose.

"That's not even _close_ to sounding as cute as Maica!" He replied and rolled his eyes at me. "Can I come in?"

"Hmmmm, I don't really know." I teased and tried to pretend to be insulted. "Did _you_ bring a gift for the hostess?"

"Me being here is a gift in itself!" He replied holding out his arms in a very look-at-me kind of way. He flashed another one of those charming smiles at me, and I had a hard time not throwing myself into his arms.

"Well, but Stefan brought a _real_ gift!" I said, still pretending to be cool.

"And what did my brother bring you, if I may ask?"

"Schnapps! He brought me schnapps!"

"And you've had more than enough of it already, it seems!" He snorted, though still smiling a little. "Did that schnapps happen to be with herbs?"

"How did you know?"

"Family recipe." He said, and in my drunken state I thought he looked slightly annoyed.

"I know." I said. Then I heard Lily shout my name from the kitchen.

"Gotta go help Lily." I said and turned to go. "Talk to you later."

A couple of minutes later I returned and noticed Damon still standing outside, the door wide open.

"Why are you just standing there?" I asked hurrying over to him.

I noticed Elena and Stefan looking very amused while watching him from the couch.

"You didn't invite me in." He replied, no longer quite as cocky.

"I never considered you the kind of guy who would wait for an invitation!" I said, trying to give him a sly smile. "Please, come on in!"

Someone laughed behind me, and I was afraid I had been talking too loud. I didn't mean for anyone but Damon to hear that.

"There's a lot you don't know about me." Damon said and came inside. He looked at Stefan and Elena with a very fake smile. I'm pretty sure he wasn't trying to make it look real. That confused me for a moment.

Then he gave me a peck on the cheek, and I didn't care anymore!

Sometime during the night I went to the kitchen to get some more snacks. A moment later Leonard and Finn followed. I couldn't really figure out whether Finn was following me or Leonard these days. They both seemed to be very much around me when we were at the same parties, at school, etc. I guess it was just because Finn was so shy. He didn't say much, Leonard did all the talking, but he was _always_ around whenever Leonard and I had a conversation, or even when I was just chit-chatting with Lily. Sometimes I felt a little watched by him, and it was starting to creep me out.

Anyway, they came to the kitchen with me (or followed me – again, couldn't tell) to help me get some more snacks.

A moment later Damon entered the kitchen as well. Leonard had been telling a story, but suddenly he grew silent. And Finn, well he had been silent the whole time.

"What a merry crowd we have here!" Damon said sarcastically and went to the sink to wash his hands.

"It was until you came in!" I replied with a smile at him.

When he had dried his hands, he took down a knife from the holder on the wall and balanced the tip on his finger, making it spin around as he did so.

"How did you do that?" I asked in astonishment. I had often seen boys from school trying to balance knives on their fingertips, but never had it spinning at the same time.

"You're such a show-off!" Leonard exclaimed, and I wasn't sure if he was annoyed or if he was just trying to tease Damon.

"Yeah, but she's impressed!" Damon replied, tilting his head with a vindictive smile at Leonard.

"Oh, shut up!" I said with a blush and handed Leonard and Finn the two bowls of snacks I had found. "Take these to the living room, will you?"

"Sure." Leonard said, and Finn nodded.

"Sending the kids out of the kitchen, are we?" Damon teased and threw the knife into the air and caught it between two fingers as it came down.

"Be careful!" I said and meant it. I didn't want him to get hurt.

He put the knife back in place, and took out two glasses from the cupboard instead, as I took a bottle of wine from the fridge. I filled one glass for myself.

"You want some?" I asked a little nervously. I wasn't sure why he had come to the kitchen with me.

"I took out two glasses, didn't I?" He replied, and I had a feeling he was standing right behind me, but I didn't have the courage to turn around and take a look.

The bottle accidentally hit the empty glass and knocked it over, probably because I was both drunk and a little nervous and couldn't control my moves too well.

Damon caught the glass just as it tipped over the edge of the table, moving his hand towards it with incredible speed. A split second later he let it fall to the floor, where it smashed.

I stared at the shattered pieces of glass and then at Damon's hand. What just happened there? It had happened so fast that I barely noticed, but it _had_ happened.

"Why did you do that?" I asked feeling a bit dizzy.

"What?"

"Let it go?"

"I didn't. I tried to catch it." He said and turned away from me to find something to pick up the pieces with.

"You _did_ catch it. And then you let it go!"

I was staring at him now, but he didn't meet my eye.

"That's ridiculous, Hannah, why would I do that?"

"Why don't you tell me? I saw it Damon, you were moving pretty fast!"

He finally looked me in the eye again.

"I almost caught it, but then it slipped out of my hand, that's all."

"You're lying." I said without a doubt.

"I'm not." He said and concentrated on picking up the pieces.

"Then why won't you look me in the eye?" I asked and made him look up at me. He looked somewhat insecure, or maybe even scared.

"I'll always look you in the eye." He said and got up, standing very close to me. I knew he was just trying to distract me, though I didn't know why, and it _almost_ worked. His face was so close to mine now that it would've been easy to just reach over and kiss him.

"What's going on, Damon?" I asked trying to sound demanding, though I think I failed.

"Nothing's going on." He said and held my gaze for a while.

Then we were interrupted by the door bell, which was quite odd, as people were just coming and going without ringing the bell by now.

"I'd better go get that." I said still looking at him, and after a few more seconds he looked away, and continued to clean up the broken glass. He didn't say anything further.

As I opened the door I saw a guy standing before me, whom I didn't recognize.

"I heard there was a party." He said and showed me a bottle of scotch or something.

"Do I know you?" I asked trying really hard to remember. He had dark hair, though not as dark as Damon's, and his clothes were black, I think. He could have very well been one of Leonard's friends, but he definitely wasn't in my year. I would've known him. Then again...he also looked too old to be in Leonard's year.

"No, I'm new in town, but I hoped it'd be okay to crash your party and get to know a few people before I start at school on Monday."

"Sounds fair enough." I said and was about to ask him to come in.

"Don't..." I heard Damon's voice. "...Let him in!"

Split seconds later he was standing next to me.

"Why?" I asked bewildered. Did he know this guy?

"Just don't." He said and put an arm around me, not quite as casually as he was trying to make it seem.

"I'm sorry, but did I do something wrong?" The guy asked with a look at Damon. The latter stared back at him, and no one said anything for a little too long.

"I don't know? _Did_ you?" Damon asked fiercely.

"Alright, what's going on?" I asked, removing Damon's arm.

"Don't you think he looks familiar?"

Then realization dawned upon me. The guy who tried to strangle me! Same height, same size, same black clothes...

I grabbed Damon's hand tightly and backed away. My heart was racing, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. In an instant, the guy had disappeared.

"What's going on?" Stefan asked as he came over. "You alright, Hannah?"

"You and I need to talk!" Damon said to Stefan and pointed his head at the door. "Outside. Now!"

"Don't leave me!" I said frightened and held onto his hand.

"We'll be right back." Damon replied and made Elena pull me away from him. "Just...Stay inside, and _don't_ let anyone inside that you don't know!"

No one but Elena seemed to have noticed that anything strange had happened, so I tried not to make it too obvious that I was upset. But I was pretty scared. This meant that the guy's attack on me had not just been a coincidence. I had _not_ just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But why on Earth would someone I didn't know want me dead? Why would _anyone_ want me dead?

"Don't you think we should call the police?" I asked Elena as we went to the kitchen.

"Let's wait for Stefan and Damon to return." She replied. "Maybe they'll catch him or at least get a better look at him or his car or something."

"You really think so?"

"Well, he didn't really do anything, did he?"

"He tried to strangle me!" I exclaimed in disbelief. What was it with this repulsion towards contacting the police?

"We don't know for sure that it was the same guy. Look, when they return, we'll call the police, okay?"

"Okay." I agreed, though only half-heartedly.

But ten minutes later we heard someone screaming outside. We rushed to the door along with the rest of the people at the party. It must've been a pretty loud scream since everyone had been able to hear it in spite of the music.

Elena and I were standing behind the rest of the crowd, not able to see much.

"It's April!" Someone exclaimed, and a girl gave a shocked scream.

"What's going on?" I asked and elbowed my way through the crowd. There, in front of me, lay a girl I recognized from Leonard's year. April was her name. She didn't move, and there was a lot of blood on her neck and down her shoulder.

A guy was sitting with her head in his arms, and two girls were bent over her.

"She's not breathing!" One of the girls cried.

A couple of people were speaking on their phones, and someone, I don't know who, called the police.

Sheriff Forbes and her men came very quickly and made us all go inside and stay there. Everybody was crying, and I was worried about Damon. I could tell that Elena, too, was worried.

Nobody knew if April was dead, though "not breathing" sounded very much like it. Some guy had tried to give her first aid, but I didn't know if he had been able to save her.

After half an hour or so, Sheriff Forbes came inside and gave us the devastating news: April had been attacked by a wild animal, and due to the massive blood loss, she hadn't survived.

No one knew what to say or do, and after a while people's parents began picking them up and bringing them home. I wished that my parents had been at home, too, but they weren't, and Damon and Stefan still hadn't returned.

After a while only Elena, Lily, and Leonard were still there, and of course, the police.

Sheriff Forbes came and asked about my parents' cell numbers. Right now I didn't care that they didn't know about the party, though they would probably get mad at me. The only thing I cared about was if Damon was okay.

Suddenly the front door banged open and Stefan and Damon came rushing in.

I got up and hurried over and into Damon's embrace.

"Are you alright, Maica?" He asked and stroke my hair gently.

"Only shocked." I said and cried into his chest. "Did you see...?"

"Yeah. We did." He said and kept stroking my hair. It was nice and comforting. "It was another attack from a wild animal."

"I can't believe they're getting so close to the house." I said into his chest. "Did you talk to the sheriff? Did they know what kind of animal it was?"

"Yeah, I talked to her. And I don't think they know yet."

"Poor April!" I cried and hugged Damon tightly. He kept holding me for a long while, even though he didn't have to. I mean, he wasn't mine, and I couldn't really expect him to. But he did. And for that I was grateful.

"What about that guy?" I suddenly remembered and let go of Damon. "Did you find him?"

"No, we didn't." He replied with an annoyed sigh. I'm pretty sure the annoyance was because they didn't catch the guy rather than because I was asking about it.

"Should I go tell the sheriff?" I asked. And then I felt stupid. A girl had just died. Why would anyone care about a new guy in town who wanted to enter my party?

"I think she's busy right now. But if you want to, we can go down to the police station tomorrow, and you can tell them what happened then."

"Yeah. Maybe." I replied with a yawn. Now that I knew Damon was alright, the alcohol and late hour made me feel very sleepy.

"You should get some rest."

"I'll just sit down for a bit." I said and sat down on the couch. Damon sat down next to me.

It didn't take me long to fall asleep with my head on his hip and my feet on Leonard's. I didn't want to, but I couldn't really help it.

When I woke up the next morning, Damon, Stefan, and Elena had gone. Lily and Leonard were still there and asleep, Leonard sitting on the floor with his back against the couch, and Lily in an arm chair.

From the kitchen I could hear our parents, all four of them, though they were trying to keep their voices down.

Leonard grunted in his sleep and turned around laying his arm across my hip. It felt a little awkward, but I didn't have the heart to move it and risk waking him from his sleep, and soon I, too, drifted off to sleep again.

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><p><em><strong>AN:**__ Thanks for reading, and please review, I LOVE reviews! :o)_


	7. Run

_**A/N: **Hello again. As promised, chapter 7 is up today, too. Thanks to **Dawnie-7 **for correcting all of my spelling and grammar mistakes. And everything else that has to do with the English language._

_**Disclaimer:** I own nothing but my OCs._

_Happy reading!_

_- Miss Sofie_

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><p><strong>Chapter 7 – Run<strong>

You would have thought that the sheriff would want to talk to everyone at the party, but as it had been an animal attack and not a crime that had caused April's death, the police didn't need to talk to us after all.

Everybody at school was, of course, very shocked, and it took a while to get back to normal.

Damon promised me to talk to Sheriff Forbes about the strange guy who had turned up at my party, and who had tried to strangle me a couple of weeks ago, but for some reason she didn't want me to come down to the station so she could talk to me personally. I found it a little weird, but if she told Damon she didn't need to talk to me, then I suppose there was no need for me to worry, either.

I didn't have the courage to tell my parents about it, as they were already pretty mad at me for having the party. And though what happened to April had nothing to do with me, it didn't exactly make my situation any better. Not that I complained, of course. Without my party, April would probably still have been with us.

I confronted Damon with the incident with the glass, but he kept saying there was nothing to it, and that I had, again, been too drunk. I wasn't quite convinced, but I pretended to be so. There was something strange about him, and I wanted to find out what it was, no matter what he'd say.

One day at school, Damon showed up right after Mr. Saltzman let us off from a history lesson. I hoped he was there to talk to me, but he went straight over to Bonnie in the parking lot, which was a little strange, as I had a feeling those two weren't exactly the best of friends.

I was watching from afar when he reached out his hand towards her, seemingly trying to take something she wouldn't give to him. I moved closer so that I would be able to hear what they were talking about. Bonnie was wearing a necklace, and, apparently, Damon wanted it. That was really weird.

"What's going on?" I interrupted as I closed the distance between us.

"Your boyfriend's just trying to steal my necklace!" Bonnie said fiercely and looked really angry.

"It's _not_ your necklace, it's mine." Damon said and then looked at me. "And Hannah, it's really none of your business!"

"You're trying to rip the necklace off of her! That _makes_ it my business!" I said angrily. I had no idea what he wanted with the necklace, but this was a ridiculous way to try to get it.

"Oh. My. God." Damon sighed and turned around, leaving the necklace with Bonnie. "Thanks, Hannah! Just go and ruin everything!"

"_What?"_ I exclaimed angrily and followed him. What the hell was going on with him?

"_Why_ did you have to interrupt?" He asked still sounding very angry, as I caught up with him.

"Because you were violating a friend of mine!"

"Since when are you and Bonnie friends?"

"Friends or not, you can't just go around taking what you want from other people!"

Damon stopped dead in his tracks, and I followed suit.

"Wanna bet?" He said looking me in the eyes. I didn't like the way his eyes turned very dark when he was in this mood. It made me a little afraid of him.

"No, I don't wanna bet!" I said and took a grip of his arm. "Damon, you're being ridiculous!"

He shook my hand off and continued towards his car.

"Hannah, just..." He sighed. "...leave me alone!"

I stopped following, feeling a little hurt as he got into his car and left me standing like a fool in the middle of the parking lot.

...

I had a feeling that Damon had begun to avoid me after the party and especially after the incident with Bonnie and the necklace. We talked once in a while at the grill, but I never saw him without Stefan or Elena. I didn't know if he was avoiding me because he knew that I knew that there was something strange going on, or because he was afraid I was falling for him. And I must admit that I liked him more and more, even after the party, and it did hurt a bit that he didn't really want to talk to me.

He rarely came to the school anymore, but I guess that's because Stefan dropped out for a while. I think he and Elena were going through some rough times, but she never talked about it. Not with me, anyway. Rumors had it that they had broken up, but they were still together a lot at the grill, so I wasn't really sure that they had.

Lily and I were still going to the grill very often these days as well (Her on her continued quest to see Mr. Saltzman and me, because I wanted to see Damon, how pathetic was that?). One day she was trying to flirt with our teacher as so many times before, and he wouldn't let her. I was standing next to Lily by the bar, watching her embarrass herself yet again (and I _had_ tried to warn her that that was what she was doing, but she wouldn't listen). A ring on Mr. Saltzman's finger caught my attention and made me forget all about Lily being embarrassing. I had noticed before that he was wearing a ring, but not which kind. This ring looked rather big on his finger, and it reminded me very much of a ring that Damon had. And if I remembered correctly, Stefan also had that similar ring.

Of course I couldn't be sure that it was the same ring, but it made me pretty suspicious. Had it only been the ring, I wouldn't have thought about it, but with everything else I had noticed about Damon, I just couldn't help thinking that something was going on, and now maybe Mr. Saltzman was part of it. Yeah, I know, I was probably putting too much into it, but still...

A couple of weeks later something happened that made me even more curious and sure that something was going on with Damon and, apparently, also with Stefan.

We had another charity event at the school. This time we would have to race each other in order to raise money for the town theater, which was about to close down. For everyone who would participate, the sponsors would pay a small amount of money to the theater, and the faster we would run, the more money we would raise. The route was about three miles long, but "unfortunately" Caroline chose me to help her at the starting line, which was also the finish line since there was a turnaround at some point during the route that turned it back around, where there was a table set up for sign ins and such, so I was going to help pour lemonade into glasses to the contestants when they would return.

Everybody could participate, not only pupils and teachers, so a big deal of the town's people were there. Including Damon, which was why I was really excited about it.

People were sent off in groups of 10 at a time, which made the event last all afternoon.

Damon and Stefan were in the same group, and as soon as the first group started out, they were teasing each other and fighting about who would be the fastest one, calling each other names and stuff. Very childish, but also very of cute.

Right before their group was sent off, Damon smiled at me like he used to. That charming, sly smile that always made my heart flutter. And I never knew what it meant.

"Good luck!" I said and smiled back at him.

"Thanks, Maica!" He replied and sent Stefan a gloating smile.

"And good luck to you, too, Stefan!" I said with a quick look at him. Then I smiled teasingly at Damon, who stuck his tongue out at me.

Then the countdown began, and I returned to the lemonade stand.

After a while two figures could be seen in the distance. Though they were still far away, I was pretty sure they were Damon and Stefan, and, obviously, they were running extremely fast. When they came closer, people began cheering for them, and they both sped up a bit. No doubt they were competing, and nither of them wanted to let the other one win. As they got nearer to the finish line, Damon sped up even more and made Stefan do the same. They were running with an almost inhuman speed, and a few yards before the finish line, they both sped up again.

I was pretty shocked to see how fast they could run. With everything else I had noticed about Damon, this only made me suspect even more that there was something strange about him.

He looked up right before crossing the finish line, and I think he saw me watching him in a state of shock, because all of a sudden, he slowed his pace and let Stefan win their own, personal race. The latter gloated and basked in the admiration of the crowd, and Damon said nothing. He just looked gloomy. I decided not to say anything right now, so I just went over to him with a glass of lemonade.

"That was really cool." I said trying to cheer him up. He looked at me just long enough to take the refreshment.

"Nah. That was plain _stupid."_ He mumbled and drank the lemonade.

I wasn't sure what he meant, but I had a feeling that he hadn't meant for the crowd to see the two of them racing like that.

"No one noticed." I tried to comfort him, though not sure what I was talking about. He did look up at me with a suspicious frown.

"What do _you_ know?"

"Not enough." I said and turned away to leave.

"Hey." He said and took a grip of my arm. "What _do_ you know?"

"Let's talk about that later." I replied and shook his hand off my arm. He let me go, but I knew I would be seeing him and talking to him again soon.

That night I went over to see Damon without being invited. I drove my Mom's car as I still didn't like walking alone at night. As I got out of the car, I had a feeling I was being watched, though I couldn't see anyone around. I shuttered and rang the door bell, hoping that someone would open soon.

Damon did.

"Well, hello Hannah!" Damon said and stepped aside as to let me in. "I figured you'd be showing up sometime."

I entered and Damon closed the door behind me. The house was very silent.

"Are you alone?" I asked. I don't know why.

"Would you want me to be?" He asked with a mysterious smile.

"Cut it off, Damon!" I said a little annoyed. I wasn't here to try to flirt with him.

"Yes, Hannah, I'm alone." He sighed rolling his eyes at me, though giving a little smile as well.

"So tell me, what's going on?"

"Would you like a drink?" He asked politely and poured one for himself.

"No, thank you."

"Come on in and sit down." He said, now suddenly being the perfect gentleman. "Let me take your coat!"  
>"No, I'm fine, thanks." I said and kept my coat on. I did sit down on the couch, though.<p>

"So...?" He asked as he sat down next to me.

"What's going on?"

"With...?"

"_You_, of course! I'm not blind!"

"Why would you think anything's going on?"

"Eh...duh!" I sighed annoyedly. "Your skin scorches from metal or herbs or something and heals again in an instant, you're much stronger than the average man, you run faster than any human's supposed to be running, and your reflexes are incredibly well-developed! So...What are you? Genetically engineered or something?"

I knew it sounded really stupid, but so did those facts I presented to him.

"No, not quite..." He said, and stood up again.

Then, suddenly, someone entered the room behind him. Damon spun around so fast that I didn't noticed until he had his back against me, and the person entering attacked him. Everything happened so fast I could barely process it. The attacker was just as fast and strong as Damon, and suddenly, he grabbed a chair and banged it against the floor, making Damon stop and looked at him with a very confused expression on his face. The chair splintered in front of him. The stranger hesitated as well, and I saw his face for the first time. He was the guy from the party, the one who had tried to strangle me.

"Why are you stopping?" Damon asked and widened his eyes in disbelief. "This is _fun_!"

The stranger still didn't say anything. He just took up one of the wooden legs from the chair, breaking it in two, and approached Damon slowly.

"Oh, no you don't!" Damon said fiercely and jumped into the air, kicking the stranger in the face as he did so. There was a loud _crack_, and the head of the man flew backwards. He just turned it back in place and continued what he was doing.

I watched, paralyzed with fear, as the two men (or aliens, or whatever they were!) fought each other much more violently than the guys at school usually did.

Then, before my brain had had time to process what was happening, the stranger had thrust the wooden stick from the chair through Damon's chest.

I screamed as he fell and hurried to his side, as the stranger disappeared. I didn't see where to.

"Damon!" I exclaimed, failing to hide the fear in my voice.

"Out." I thought I heard him whisper.

"What?" I asked in surprise. He wanted me to leave? Now?

"Take it out!" He rattled, and I reckoned he was talking about the stick.

"I...I can't." I said with tears leaving my eyes. "It'll hurt you even worse."

"Take it out!" He whispered again.

I placed my hands on the stick, trying to remove it as gently as possible, but I stopped as Damon screamed with pain.

"Just...do it...quickly." He said in another rattle.

I tried to be gentle, but I couldn't prevent him from hurting as I pulled out the stick. It took all my powers to do so, and I had to look away.

This time Damon roared with pain, and I threw the bloody stick on the floor, taking his hand in mine to try to comfort him. A moment later he lay still, as if he was dead. Tears streamed down my face now.

"Damon." I cried and caressed his beautiful face. I couldn't believe that this was happening.

"Maica..." He whispered like all of a sudden, though much lower than before.

"Damon?" I asked feeling a little less devastated than a moment ago.

"Maica, I need..." I couldn't hear the rest as he could barely whisper anymore.

I moved my ear closer to his mouth, wanting to hear what he was trying to say.

"I'm sorry." He whispered this time.

"Shhhh...don't be sorry." I said and caressed his face again.

"I'm so, so sorry!" He whispered again.

The pain as he sunk his teeth into my neck was unbearable. I screamed, and I fainted, and the pain woke me up again. I had never experienced anything that hurt this bad before, and it felt as if it lasted for a very, very long time. When he finally let go of me and fell back onto to the floor, I had blood all over my body and clothes, and the wound throbbed like mad. I crawled away from him, and after taking a couple of deep breaths, I was able to get to my feet. I staggered outside and began to run. I forgot everything about the car, I just ran.

I ran, till I couldn't run no more.

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><p><strong>AN:** _So what did you think of it? Please leave a review so I'll have a chance to know! Thanks! :o)_


	8. Cries in The Dark

**Chapter 8 – Cries in The Dark**

When I couldn't run any longer from lack of air and from crying, I let myself fall down by a nearby tree. The surroundings looked somewhat familiar, but it was dark and my sight was blurred from tears, so I had no idea where I was.

I didn't really care, either. A million thoughts were running through my mind, but nothing made sense. The only thing that _did_ make sense was the pain from my neck. I had a big wound, it seemed, and whenever I touched it with my fingers, they came back with fresh blood on them. It throbbed like mad, and in my scared state I thought I would bleed to death. I didn't care about that, either.

I kept seeing Damon's face among all the other thoughts. His eyes were not his usual ones, though. Well, yes, the _eyes_ were, but the skin around them wasn't. And his mouth...he had fangs, for Christ's sake! This had to be a bad dream. It couldn't be anything else, could it? Yeah, that was it. I had been dreaming. Of course Damon didn't have fangs!

And then I touched my neck again. The wound still told me otherwise.

I cried so hard that my head was throbbing as well. I almost passed a few times, and right when I thought I'd just let go and pass out beneath the tree, someone called my name.

"Hannah?" A male voice said and made me shiver.

"Hannah, what're you doing here?" It was Leonard.

I didn't reply. I just put my arms around my legs and began rocking back and forth.

"Is everything okay?" He asked and got down on his knees before me.

"Oh my god...you're hurt!" He said and reached out for me.

I moved away from him, not wanting him to touch me right now.

"It's alright, Hannah, we gotta get you inside." He said and put one arm around my back and one beneath my legs in an attempt to lift me up. I didn't move or do anything else to help him. I didn't care.

"Whoops!" He said as he lifted me up. I hadn't expected him to be able to. He was just a little boy. Well, maybe he wasn't anymore, but I hadn't really noticed.

I must've chosen to fall down by a tree in the backyard of Lily and Leonard's house, because Leonard carried me through the garden and inside very quickly. Or maybe I just passed out and didn't notice how long it took him. I never really found out.

He put me down on the couch, and I just sat there, waiting to wake up from my worst nightmare ever.

"What happened?" Leonard asked from the bathroom. I didn't reply until he returned with a wet cloth and some bandages.

"I'm not sure." I finally said not looking at him. I was just staring right in front of me.

"Got any idea at all?"

"I think it was Damon." I said and shook my head, which made the wound throb harder.

"Damon?"

"He bit me."

"Damon..._bit_...you_?"_ Leonard exclaimed and stopped cleaning my wound for a couple of seconds. "Why would he do that?"

"I don't get it." I said and looked up at Leonard. He was pretty close to me, but I didn't care.

"You're sure he actually _bit_ you?"

"No. But he was hurt, and then his face changed, and he told me to come closer, and suddenly I felt the pain, and..." I suddenly spilled.

"Alright, calm down!" Leonard said and stroke my hair. "He can't hurt you here."

He finished cleaning my wound, but it was still bleeding, so he put on some thick bandages.

"I think I'd better call the police." He said as he finished. "Can I leave you here for two seconds?"

"Please don't go!" I said and reached out for him as he got up. I so did not want to be left alone right now.

"Alright." He said and sat down again.

"Where's Lily?"

"Shopping for food with my mom, I think."

"What about your dad?"

"He's at a meeting tonight. I think they're planning on how to get rid of those wild animals who keep attacking people, or something." He grew silent as I looked at him with panic in my eyes.

Wild animals! My wound was exactly like April's had been! Damon!

"Oh my God!" I exclaimed and covered my mouth with a hand.

"You think a wild animal did this to you?" Leonard asked and removed my hand with his.

"I think..." I began, but my voice failed me from crying. "I think Damon is the wild animal!"

"Hannah, you're in shock, but I don't think..."

"He's a vampire!" I finally understood.

"A vampire?" Leonard asked in disbelief. I can't say I blamed him. "Alright, I'm not at all sure what happened, but I think I gotta call the police. Did you bring your phone?"

"Ehm...yeah." I said distractedly and pulled it out from my jeans pocket. I handed it to Leonard, but right when he took it, it rang.

"It's Elena." He said and offered it to me.

I shook my head.

"You want me to answer."

"Yeah." I said, tears still streaming down my cheeks.

"Alright." He said and answered it with a 'hello'.

"No, it's Leonard." He said and continued the conversation with Elena. "She's right here...No, she's not okay...She's hurt...She said something about Damon biting her...Not sure what happened, though...Yes...No...Alright, but hurry up!"

Then he hung up.

"Elena's coming over. She told me not to call the police yet, though I'm not sure why."

"Thanks." I said and took the phone when he handed it to me.

"You're welcome." He said and looked at me with a sigh. I started crying again, which made him put his arm around me, careful not to touch my wound.

"I won't let anything happen to you." He whispered and held me a little tighter than I would normally have let him done. Well, I _was_ his sister's best friend. Of course he cared about me.

When the doorbell rang I followed Leonard to the door. I didn't want to be left alone, not even for one minute.

I let out a small scream as I saw that Stefan and Damon had come with Elena, and I couldn't help backing away.

"Hannah, I need to talk to you!" Damon said and tried to get in. For some reason he couldn't. It was like his feet wouldn't let him step over the threshold.

"Don't let him in!" I said and held on to Leonard's shirt (I know. It didn't make any sense at the time, either.).

"I told you it'd be a bad idea to come!" Elena said with an annoyed look at Damon.

"Whatever you did to her, you're gonna pay!" Leonard threatened Damon, who just gave a small, sarcastic smile.

Elena came in and hurried to my side. She took a look at my bandage and then looked back at Damon. I wasn't sure if she was mad or sad.

"Stefan, come on in!" Leonard said and shot the door in Damon's face as soon as Stefan had passed the threshold.

"Are you alright?" Stefan asked me and ignored Damon's complaining from outside.

"Can't you make him go away?" I asked keeping an eye on the door.

"Damon, you heard her!" Stefan said not much louder than usual. Not another sound was heard from outside after that.

"What's going on?" I asked Elena as we sat down on the couch a couple of minutes later. Stefan and Leonard had gone into another room to talk.

"You already know, don't you?" She asked and squeezed my arm a bit.

"He's a...vampire?"

"Yes." She sighed and looked thoroughly at me.

"But that's not possible!"

"I couldn't believe it, either, when I first found out."

"How can you...be friends with him?"

"Well..."

"Oh my God! Stefan...?"

"Yeah."

"I don't get it!"

"That's...fair enough. But I'll try to answer every question you may have, so...shoot!"

"How? How did they become vampires? Or have they always been?"

"No, they haven't. It's a long story. Want the short version?"

I nodded.

"Someone fed them vampire blood, then they died with the blood in their bodies, and when they woke up, they drank human blood. They had to to complete the transition."

"That sounds..."

"Yeah, I know. Quite a mouthful."

"Yeah."

For a while we sat in silence. Then I had to get some of my many, many questions answered.

"How do they walk in the sunlight? Don't vampires burn in the sun? Or is that only a myth?"

"No, that's correct. They've got magic rings on their fingers, made by a witch long ago."

"A witch? There are witches, too?"

"Yes, actually, Bonnie is one. But witches are good people. Well, at least most of them."

"Bonnie?" I asked and widened my eyes. This was getting weirder and weirder.

"Am I gonna wake up from a bad dream soon?"

"I'm afraid not." Elena said and put a comforting hand on my arm.

"The animal attacks...were they Damon and Stefan? April? Did they kill her?"

"NO." Elena exclaimed and then calmed her voice. "No, when April was killed they were out hunting the guy who probably did it. The one who attacked you that night? He's a vampire."

"Seriously? But why would a strange vampire want to attack me?"

"Well, we haven't figured that one out yet."

"That's creepy. But then again, Damon..."

"Yeah, about Damon... He never meant to hurt you."

"Then why did he do it?"

"Because he was dying. He needed blood to survive."

"And I was closest." I stated lost in my thoughts.

"You know," Elena said, "when Stefan and I found him, he was sitting on the floor, his arms around his legs and rocking back and forth saying 'Maica' over and over again."

I chose to ignore that.

"How can he be okay this soon?" I asked instead.

"Blood helps them heal. And small scratches heal in an instant."

"Like his chest when my necklace...what's with the necklace you gave me? They can't touch silver?"

"No, they can't touch vervain. That's a herb inside the necklace."

"Yeah. I opened it. My dad told me it was vervain."

We were interrupted by Stefan and Leonard coming back into the living room. Leonard looked sort of happy, at least much less worried than when they left.

"Lily will be home soon." He said and looked at my bandage. "What happened to you, Hannah?"

"Eh...?" Was all I could say. Now what was going on here?

"Just a scratch." Elena said and got up from the couch. "It was really nice of you to let us stay, but I'm afraid we can't wait any longer."

She grabbed my hand and pulled me up from the couch as well. I had no clue what was going on right now, but it seemed Leonard had suddenly forgotten about everything that had just happened.

"What's going on?" I asked, but Elena shushed me and dragged me along with her.

"Bye Leo!" I reached to say before Stefan closed the door behind us. We got into his car, Elena and I on the backseat, and sped off.

"What was that all about?" I asked confusedly.

"Leonard doesn't remember anything." Stefan said from the front seat.

"He was compelled." Elena explained.

"Compelled?"

"Vampires can make humans think and remember what they want them to, so Leonard won't remember anything but the three of us coming over to see Lily."

"Is that why...Damon...Did he compel me?"

"He probably did the first time you..." She didn't finish the sentence. "But the necklace protects you. You can't be compelled when you're wearing vervain. It doesn't matter if it's in your jewelry, in your perfume or if you've been drinking it."

"So he compelled me to sleep with him!"

"Maybe he did. Maybe he didn't. But...only the first time. Except if you weren't wearing the necklace the second time, but I'm pretty sure I saw you wearing it at the party..."

"Yeah." I said a little flustered. I didn't usually talk to people about sleeping with someone else.

The car pulled up to the Salvatore mansion, and I froze.

"I'm not going in there!" I said and remembered the pain much too clearly.

"I'll just go get some of my clothes I left earlier. We'll need to get you out of that before you go home." Elena said and looked at my bloody clothes. I hadn't thought of that.

She got out of the car and I was left with Stefan. Suddenly I was very aware of the fact that he could kill me in an instant.

"I'm not gonna hurt you." He said sensing my fear.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"I've been dating Elena for months now, and I've never wanted to hurt her, her friends or anyone else human. But I guess you can't know for sure."

"If you don't hurt humans, then how do you live?"

"Well, technically, I'm dead..."

"I mean, how do you deal without blood?"

"I don't. But I only prey on wild animals."

"You never fed on humans?"

"I wouldn't say that...but it was a long time ago and I've changed."

"So you _are_ a murderer!"

"Touché!" He said with a hurt expression on his face.

I had a really hard time understanding what I was doing alone in a car with a monstrous murderer, but I didn't dare leave, either. Damon could be out there.

Elena returned with some clothes so I could change on the way home. I got home a little later than my parents approved of, but they didn't scold me too much when I said I had fallen down the stairs at Lily's place and scratched my neck. I think they bought it, so I went to bed.

I didn't get much sleep that night, though.


	9. Messed Up

**A/N: **Sorry for the long wait. My inspiration (TVD every Thursday night) is gone! :o( Anyway, I shall continue writing, though sometimes I may take a while to post. Next chapter is almost done, so it shouldn't take quite as long next time.

Thanks for the reviews, alerts, favourites and so on! I really love them all! :o)

And thanks to **Dawnie-7**, as always, for proof reading!

The scene in this chapter which is partly from the show, is not intended to follow the actual scene. Just in case you're thinking "no, that's not how it happened" - I know! ;o)

Anyway, happy reading!

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><p><strong>Chapter 9 – Messed Up<strong>

I didn't go to school the next day, which caused Lily to text me a hundred times before noon. I lied and told her I had the flu, and I think she bought it. My parents did.

I also got a text message from Leonard, which was a bit unusual. I didn't even know that he had my number. He was worried about me as I hadn't looked too well last night, so I guess I had him fooled, too.

I was still very confused and didn't know what to believe. Elena and Stefan had told me over and over again that I had no reason to be afraid of Stefan, but when they told me with words that I could trust Damon as well, their voices said the opposite.

Around noon I got a message from Damon, saying that he needed to talk to me. I ignored it.

A few minutes later I got another message from him, this time saying that he _really_ needed to talk to me. I ignored that one, too.

I was sitting by my bedroom table with my laptop in front of me, when there was a knock on the window. When I turned around to look, I saw Damon sitting on the windowsill. No human would've been able to sit so elegantly on so little space, but Damon seemed to have no problems doing just that.

"I need to talk to you!" He said loud enough for me to hear it through the panes. I got up and walked over to the window, and closed the curtains. He rolled his eyes right in time for me to see it before the curtains blocked the view.

I may have acted coolly, but I was pretty scared. I knew he could get inside in an instant, if he wanted to, but after a while I relaxed a bit, as I heard nothing further from him.

To be honest, he scared me to death! No matter what Elena and Stefan said, I couldn't help but feel the pain in my wound every time I thought of Damon, and, naturally, I thought about him quite a lot. A few days ago the thought of him would've made me feel excited and warm inside, now it only made me feel hatred towards him, though Elena had told me over and over again that he had never meant to hurt me. Somehow he had made me feel safe before, and now he made me feel the opposite. It was loathing, disappointment, fright, confusion, and the inability not to think about him all in one. In short, I felt pretty messed up!

…

I thought Damon had given up on trying to talk to me, as I didn't hear anything from him for a while. I stayed at home for the next couple of weeks and didn't even go to the grill with Lily, which she had no problem voicing her complaints about. I stuck to the excuse of having the flu. Hey, sometimes it can take weeks to get over it!

Anyway, the first time I went out apart from going to school, was at a party...at the school. We were having one, of several, of the school's annual decadesdances – this time it was the 50's. I was wearing a crimson dress made of silk with a somewhat tight halter neck and a big, fluffy skirt. Around the waist I had a black band, and in my hair a ribbon the same color as the dress with two big, black flowers – also made of silk. My make-up was much more colorful than usually, and my very red lipstick matched my dress. I barely recognized myself when I looked in the mirror.

Right before I left I put on the vervain necklace. Though Damon could still hurt me, at least he couldn't control my thoughts this way. That was, if he was going to show up at all. I hoped not.

Lily and I arrived together a little late to find that everybody had dressed up for the party, and everyone looked really 50-ish. Elena gave me a quick hug as we met, and Stefan gave me a nod. I had seen him at school every day since the night when Damon bit me, and though I wasn't afraid of him, he did make me feel a little uncomfortable.

"Ah...Hannah!" Someone said, and as I turned around to face the one addressing me, I saw Damon.

"Stay. Away!" I said between my teeth and backed away from him.

"You know, sooner or later you'll have to talk to me again." He said and sounded annoyingly sure of himself.

"No, I don't!" I said and felt relieved when Leonard came to my rescue.

"Wanna dance, Hannah?" He asked and reached out a hand to me.

"Love to!" I said and took his hand, sending Damon a fierce glare as I passed him by. I probably looked more secure than I felt.

"How do you do that?" Leonard asked as we danced. It was a somewhat slow dance, so it was easy to talk.

"Do what?" I asked not looking at him. I was watching Damon, making sure he didn't come anywhere near me.

"Make it look so easy to look so good!" Leonard replied, trying to get my attention. It worked.

"Stop it, Leo!" I said with a blush and a quick glance at him to see if he was being serious. Apparently, he was.

"No, I mean it!" He said and stroked my hair. He caught my eye and held the gaze for a while.

Alright, this was getting a little awkward. He was Lily's younger brother, practically like a brother to myself. What was he doing?

I broke the gaze, afraid he was going to kiss me or something like that, and when I looked around, Damon had disappeared.

I was rescued by the DJ, who put on an up-tempo song from the 50's, so Leonard had to let go of me and let me dance. He made me swing around, and let go of my hand, and when I came back, I landed in Damon's arms.

I felt a shiver down my spine as he held me in a firm grip, not letting go though I tried to get away from him.

"Hannah, cut it out!" He said and looked at me with his blue eyes piercing mine.

"Let go of me!" I spat and fought him, but he held me so firmly that no one noticed I was trying to break free.

"The guy who attacked you..." He said and made me stop fighting him. "...He's here tonight!"

I tensed again, but this time not because of Damon.

"How do you know?" I asked and tried to relax. He let go of me, so I could leave if I wanted to.

"He's after Elena as well. He broke into her house and attacked her."

"But how...I thought..."

"He's been invited in. As a pizza delivery guy. He's not stupid!"

"And where does that leave me? What can I do?"

"You should stay right here in the middle of the dance floor. It's probably the safest place right now. And if you see or hear anything – call me!" He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Or Stefan, if you'd rather not talk to me."

I felt a little guilty, but then he spun me around and did some 50's dance moves, and all guilt had disappeared. Instead I felt dizzy from all the spinning around, and when I thought Damon would catch me, I landed in Leonard's arms again. I looked around for Damon, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Are you alright?" Leonard asked with a frown. "You look upset. Did he do anything to you?"

"No. I just feel a little dizzy, that's all." I said, still searching the room. Then I noticed a guy with a hoody talking to a girl with long, black hair. She looked Asian or maybe part Asian. I had seen her with Jeremy at the grill, but I didn't know her. And now she was talking to someone who was wearing clothes just like the vampire who had now tried to kill both me, Damon, and Elena.

"Do you know that girl over there?" I asked Leonard and pointed my head towards her.

"Anna? She's a friend of Jeremy's." Leonard replied. We had stopped dancing because of my dizziness.

"They're close friends?"

"I don't think so. They just met."

"How did they meet?"

"I don't know. Why?" He asked.

"Just because...do you know the guy she's talking to right now?"

And then, as if he had heard me, he looked directly at me, and I recognized his face. It was him! I panicked and started running towards Elena and Stefan. They were at the other side of the room.

"Whoah, what's going on?" I heard Damon say as I bumped into him.

"It's him!" I said and made Damon look in the same direction as I did. "I saw his face!"

"You stay here with Elena!" Damon commanded and got Stefan's attention. Together they ran through the crowd trying to catch the vampire.

I ran towards Elena, who was on the phone with someone. I could see from the expression on her face that something was really wrong. Then I looked where she looked, and I saw the guy standing behind Jeremy, not wearing the hoody anymore, but also on the phone.

Elena began walking towards the exit, and I followed, not wanting to leave her alone, nor to be left alone. She hung up the phone and grabbed my hand.

"Come on!" She yelled and began running, and I followed. We could hear running footsteps as we ran through the corridors, and suddenly the door in front of us was locked.

"NO!" Elena screamed and as we turned around, we saw the vampire coming towards us, a smug grin on his face.

"Elena!" I yelled as I found an unlocked door, and we both ran on. We ended up in a class room, and the no longer hooded guy followed closely after. There were no doors, nor open windows, no nothing we could escape through.

The guy went for Elena, who grabbed a handful of pencils to stab him with. They didn't hurt him much, though just enough for me to have a chance to stab him with a pair of scissors I found on the desk. They didn't hurt him much either, and as he threw Elena across the room, he turned around to take his toll on me. I stumbled and fell as I tried to back away, and right when he was hovering over me, someone thrust a wooden stick of some sort through his back, causing him to fall on the floor.

"Damon!" I exclaimed as the latter took my hand and dragged me to my feet, pushing me towards Elena.

Stefan was there, too, pointing another wooden stick at the vampire's heart.

"We just wanna talk to you." Stefan said with an angry look at the vampire.

"Screw you!" He replied, causing Stefan to stab him in the stomach with the stick.

"Wrong answer!" He spat and looked like someone who was prepared to kill.

"What do you want with Elena and Hannah?" He asked, holding on to the stick.

"Hannah was just for the fun of it!" He replied and spat at Stefan. The latter made the wooden stick go further into the vampire's stomach, rage all over his face.

"And maybe I could get to Damon that way!" He said, fighting to survive.

"And Elena?"

"She looks like Katherine!"

"You knew Katherine?" Damon asked in surprise.

Katherine? Who was Katherine?

"You thought you were the only ones? You don't even remember me!"

Damon crossed his arms and bent over as if to whisper to the guy.

"Tell me how to get into the tomb!" He said, his eyes looking really dark.

As he refused to tell Damon anything, Stefan tortured him some more.

"The grimoire!" He yelled. "Check the journal! Jonathan Gilbert's journal!"

"Who are you working with?" Stefan asked after exchanging glances with Damon. I looked at Elena, but she was watching the scene closely.

"I'm not gonna tell you. You're gonna have to kill me!" He gasped.

Stefan pulled out the wooden stick and exchanged glances with Damon again. Then he thrust the stick deep into the vampire's heart. The latter grew silent as the last bit of life oozed out of him.

"He had to die." Stefan stated, as Elena and I watched in horror.

"He had been invited in." Damon explained.

None of them looked too fond of what had just happened.

I was in a state of shock when going home from the dance not long after the incident.

Stefan drove me, along with Elena and Damon. I still didn't feel like I could trust Damon, but he was in the passenger seat in the front, and Elena and I were in the back.

"Who's Katherine?" I asked after a while. No one replied, so I continued. "And what's the tomb he was talking about?"

Damon sighed from the front seat, then he began: "There's a tomb where the chapel used to be at the old Salvatore estate. Inside the tomb, there are 27 vampires, who have been trapped by a spell for more than a century."

"And why do you want to get into that tomb?" I asked trying to wrap my head around it all. "Because of that Katherine, whoever she may be?"

Damon didn't reply.

"Yeah, she would be the reason why." Stefan said quietly after a while.

Damon leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes with a sigh. I looked out the window, trying to hide the expression on my face. A single tear was leaving my eye.

At least now I knew his intentions with me had never been genuine.

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><p><strong>AN: **Please let me know what you think by reviewing! Thanks! :o)


	10. The Tomb

**A/N:** Thanks for the reviews, alerts, and favourites! They really make my day! :o)

Thanks to **Dawnie_7** for proof reading. Thanks to everyone for just reading! :o)

Hope you enjoy!

- Miss Sofie

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><p><strong>Chapter 10 – The Tomb<strong>

"This Katherine...who is she?" I asked, though I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

I was sitting on my bed with Elena in front of me. She had come over to try to explain the whole situation to me. It wasn't easy to understand everything that was going on.

"I don't even know where to begin..." She said with a sigh. "It'd be so much easier if you talked to Damon."

"Yeah, but that's not an option." I stated.

"Well, I only know what Stefan's told me, but Katherine was a vampire they both loved back when they were human. In the beginning they didn't know she was a vampire. Apparently, people in Mystic Falls were hunting vampires at that time, and in the end they trapped them all inside the chapel and set it on fire. Katherine was in there. But instead of being burnt, the vampires got into the tomb underneath the chapel, where a witch – Bonnie's ancestor Emily – trapped them with a spell, and they have been trapped down there ever since. Damon wants to get Katherine out of the tomb, so now he's trying to find a way to break the spell."

"So Damon's still in love with Katherine?"

Elena looked at me for a while, then she put her hand on my arm. "I'm sorry, Hannah."

"Don't be." I said and led myself to believe I meant it. "I don't care. I don't even like him!"

"Really? Well, I'm glad if you're not hurt, but I thought..."

"Yeah, so did I. For a short while. But no, I don't care about him."

"That really is good news!" She said, not quite as gloomy as a minute ago.

"But why do Damon and Stefan pretend to hate each other so much, when it's obvious that they don't?"

"I think it all comes down to...Katherine!" Elena said and rolled her eyes. "I'm just glad Stefan is way past her."

"You really trust him?"

"100%!"

"Hm...I guess I'll have to get used to being around a vampire, then."

"That'd...be nice." Elena said with a small smile and then a laugh. "Who would've believed all this a few months ago?"

I gave a small laugh as well and poured some more tea.

…

One day at school, in the middle of a history lesson, I noticed something about Mr. Saltzman. He was wearing a ring very similar to the ones that Damon and Stefan had. I shot a glance at Stefan, who noticed, but he didn't get what my beckoning meant, so I wrote him a note saying "_Mr. Saltzman is a vampire!" _Though I couldn't know for sure. Unfortunately, Mr. Saltzman saw this and came down to me, snapping the note out of Stefan's hand.

"Mr. Saltzman is a vampire?" He read and made the whole class laugh. "Would you care to explain, Hannah?"

He was piercing me with his eyes, and I felt really uncomfortable. If he really was a vampire, he could rip my throat out in a split second. In that very moment, I was really glad to sit so close to Stefan.

"I...uh...I just think history is so boring that it sucks the life out of us!" I tried, not sure how convincing I was.

"Hm." He said and turned around, taking a look at the class. "Anyone else bored?"

"No, Mr. Saltzman!" Lily said and pretended not to know me, which was rather stupid as we were always sitting next to each other.

"Hm." He said again. "Miss Cohen, outside, now!"

Oops!

I got up very slowly. I _really_ didn't wanna go outside with a vampire, whom I had just insulted.

"The rest of you can start over on chapter 15!" Mr. Saltzman said as he followed me to the door. "I'll be back as soon as I've dealt with...this."

"I'm really sorry, Mr. Saltzman." I exclaimed as soon as he closed the door behind us. The corridor was empty, and I was completely alone with him. "I didn't mean to offend you or anything. It was just a joke."

"What do you know about vampires?" He confronted me.

His question took me quite by surprise.

"Uh...that they don't exist?" I tried.

"You're a very bad liar!" He said and put his hands on my shoulders. "If you know _anything_, I need you to tell me."

"Really, you don't believe in them, do you, Mr. Saltzman?" I said pretending to find this whole situation very amusing.

"And what if I do? Would you trust me enough to tell me _your _secret?"

"No." I said and realized my mistake.

"Ah, but you do have a secret concerning vampires! Would it, by any chance, have anything to do with the Salvatore brothers?"

I shot him a quick glance, then I looked down.

"No. I don't know what you're talking about!" I lied.

"Very well, we'll leave it at that." He said, and to my big surprise he didn't scold me or send me to the principal's office.

"Let's get back to history, shall we?" He said and held the door for me.

After school I told Elena and Stefan what Alaric had said and asked, and that he knew about the brothers' secret. Stefan decided to go find out who and what Mr. Saltzman was, as he was positive he wasn't a vampire.

…

"Alaric Saltzman's wife was killed by a vampire." Stefan said as he entered the living room at Elena's. "That's why he's been trying to track down the vampire who did it, and that has lead him to Mystic Falls."

"So he's not a vampire?" I asked.

"No."

"What about his ring?"

"That's just a coincidence. It's not exactly like mine and Damon's."

"Oh. I guess it's a good thing that he's not a vampire, right?"

"Except he hates vampires."

"But he wouldn't hurt you?" Elena asked with a frown.

"I don't think so. But I don't know about Damon."

"Are you okay, Hannah?" Elena asked with a worried look at me. I must've looked pretty confused or something.

"Yeah. I just can't really believe all of this. I mean, I _know_ it's true, but..."

"You're not the only one..." Elena tried to comfort me. "Sometimes I still have a feeling that I'm only dreaming."

"Yeah, I know..." Stefan said with a teasing smile. "I am pretty much of a dream guy!"

Elena pushed him away with a smile.

"Get over yourself!"

I couldn't help smiling. They were really cute together. And I guess I was beginning to see Stefan as just another teenager, though that wasn't exactly what he was.

…

Within the next week or two, Elena and Stefan found this _grimoire_ they had been talking about. I'm not really sure how, but I think they might've opened up a grave or something. I tried to stay out of it, but Elena had begun to share it with me, whenever there was something new to be said on the vampire topic. I guess she was glad to have someone to talk to apart from the vampires themselves. She also had Bonnie, I think, but they didn't seem to talk as much as they used to, so I guess Elena turned to me instead.

Lily wasn't too fond of this, especially as she kept saying that there was something I wasn't telling her. I hated lying to her, but I couldn't tell her about Damon and Stefan. At least not yet. I didn't know if I was ever going to be able to tell her.

Anyway, I was spending quite a bit of time with Elena at the Salvatore boarding house, even though it meant I had to be polite to Damon. He didn't frighten me as much as he did before, but I still didn't feel like talking to him alone. Once in a while, when Stefan or Elena had left to go answer the door or something, I would be left alone with Damon, but if they didn't return within a couple of minutes, Damon would get up and leave the room. Neither of us would say much, if we said anything at all. I think he had given up on talking to me and trying to explain what had happened that night. Either that or he didn't care. Maybe he was just too absorbed in the _Katherine_ case.

I wouldn't have talked to him if he wanted me to, but I hated the fact that he didn't even try anymore!

"So, are we gonna open the tomb or not?" Damon suddenly said one day, when the four of us were hanging out in their living room.

"Not." Stefan said without removing his eyes from the book he was reading.

"Come on, you guys!" Damon complained and straightened up in his chair. "First you double-cross me and now you simply refuse to help?"

What? Elena hadn't told me anything about _that_!

"Stefan, we did promise him..." Elena began.

"No matter what, we'll need a witch stronger than Bonnie, and we don't have one." Stefan said and looked up from his book.

"If you open up the tomb, won't all the vampires get out?" I asked in disbelief. I had never actually thought they'd do it.

"What? You don't like vampires?" Damon asked with a sarcastic smile at me.

"I don't mind Stefan!" I replied coolly.

"Yeah, my brother has a tendency to be everybody's favorite!" He wasn't smiling anymore. He just looked really annoyed.

"Cut it out, Kids." Stefan said and took out an old book from somewhere within his jacket.

Damon got up really quickly.

"The grimoire!" He exclaimed and reached out for it. Stefan removed it immediately.

"You're _not _gonna do this alone!" Stefan said and held forth the book.

"And what if I am?"

"You won't get the grimoire."

"Alright, I _promise_ I won't do it without you, _Stefan_!" He said and took the grimoire from Stefan's hand.

"What is it?" I asked. I had never heard of a _grimoire_ before.

"It's a book with spells. Kinda like a book of recipes for witches." Stefan explained.

"I'll talk to Bonnie, then." Elena said and got up. She left to go make a call.

I couldn't believe they were gonna open the tomb and let out the vampires, but suddenly I found myself seated in the backseat of Damon's car with Elena next to me, on our way to the tomb.

…

_The tomb_ was, as far as I could tell, a big hole in the ground. There was some kind of stone door with inscriptions on it, and everything looked very old, which it also was. Bonnie arrived shortly after us, bringing her grandma. It turned out that she, too, was a witch. Together they would try to break the spell that kept the tomb closed. Bonnie didn't have enough power to do it on her own.

Damon brought a couple of blood bags, which I must admit I thought was a little gross. But yeah, I know, if the vampires had been in the tomb for so long, they were probably pretty weak from hunger.

"Come on, Bonnie!" Damon said impatiently for the third time within a few minutes.

"Dammit, Damon, I can't concentrate!" Bonnie exclaimed opening her eyes. She closed them again and tried to focus.

"Just hurry up, will ya?"

"Maybe you shouldn't..." I tried and put a hand on Damon's arm. He shook it off and kept pacing back and forth, making me shut up instead of finishing the sentence.

I drew a little back, standing close to Elena.

Suddenly someone looked down on us in the hole. It was that girl, Anna, who knew Jeremy. What was _she_ doing here?

With a quick, inhuman jump she joined us at the bottom of the hole.

"My mom is in there." She said without further explanation.

Damon didn't seem surprised to find out that she, too was a vampire, and before Stefan could say anything, there was a loud crack and the stone slab that served as a door to the tomb, rolled to the side.

Damon rushed inside so quickly that you could barely see him running.

...

"Damon!" I almost screamed as I heard his loud roar from inside the tomb. I got loose from Elena's grip and hurried inside to try to find him. It was dark and dusty, and there was a rotten smell, but I didn't care. I ran towards the sound of Damon.

"Where is she?" I heard him yell. "She's not here!"

I stopped dead in my tracks. I had been so foolish. He wasn't injured, and he wasn't in danger, he was just mad, because he couldn't find Katherine. There had been no need for me to worry. Besides, he hadn't exactly been any kind of attentive towards me or anyone else since we left for the tomb. It was all just _Katherine_.

I turned around and tried to feel my way back. The walls were cold and clammy, and they were covered in cobwebs. Normally, I would've kept my hands far away from those, but right now I just needed to get outside, one way or the other. My throat was starting to hurt from the lack of air in the tomb.

All of a sudden, someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me close. I didn't have time to think before I felt the pain on my neck as a vampire began sucking the life out of me. Within seconds I would be dead!

"Maica!" I heard Damon's voice as he broke the neck of whatever vampire was feeding on me. I collapsed in his arms but stayed half-conscious as he carried me to the exit. He lay me down in the dim light by the exit, and ripped the vein on his wrist open, feeding me his blood.

"Don't you dare die within the next 24 hours!" He warned me, but in my almost unconscious state I wasn't sure if he was angry, or if he was just teasing me. Then he left me and went back into the tomb.

It didn't take me long to fully gain consciousness, and after a couple of minutes I was able to stand up and walk out of the tomb without help. It's fascinating what vampire blood can actually do to you!

"She's not here!" Damon exclaimed again as he came towards the exit for the second time. "Why is she not here?" As he tried to go out into the open, he sort of clashed against the air.

"You're kidding me!" He said with a look at Bonnie. "It's not funny!"

"No, it's not." Bonnie said seriously and kept her distance.

"The spell? I can't get out?"

"We only opened the tomb. We can't break the spell." Bonnie's grandma said.

Anna came rushing to the exit, supporting her mother who was drinking blood from a plastic bag.

"We're trapped?" Anna asked in horror.

"Where's Katherine?" Damon asked fiercely. Apparently, he didn't care much about getting out right now.

"She's not here." Anna's mother said.

"She was never in the tomb." Anna said still supporting her mom.

Damon looked like someone who was prepared to rip the head off both of them.

"Where is she?" He asked again, this time directed at Anna.

"The last time I saw her was somewhere up north a couple of years ago."

"_Where _up North?"

"She knew about you, Damon." Anna said, her voice almost pitiful. "She knew about you, and yet she didn't care!"

The hurt expression on Damon's face made me want to run to him and hug him tight, but it was followed by an expression so angry that I didn't dare. Besides, there was a hungry vampire standing next to him, and I wasn't what he needed right now.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Thanks for reading this far! Please leave a review! Thanks! :o)


	11. The Death of a History Teacher

**Chapter 11 - The Death of a History Teacher**

"Bonnie, please!" I begged for the hundredth time that day. "If not for me, then for Elena!"

Damon had been in the tomb with Anna and the other vampires since last night, and Bonnie was the only one who could get him out. I tried to tell myself that I didn't care, but I wanted him out of there so badly, even if it meant he would go searching for Katherine. I can't say I understood him – she had let him believe that she was stuck inside the tomb, and he had had a heartache for 145 years because of that. I had a feeling that I would want to rip off Katherine's head, if I ever met her, but that, of course, wouldn't be an option since she was a vampire, and I was not.

"No!" Bonnie replied. She did look up at me, though, and I must've looked pretty hurt. "Hannah, I can't!"

"Why not? You have the grimoire, right? And it contains the spell?"

"Yeah." She sighed. "But I'd need my grandma to help, and she's still ill from last night."

"Sorry, I didn't know that." I said and felt a glimmer of hope. "But you _can_ do it once she's well again?"

"Probably." She sighed again. "Look, Hannah, I'll try, alright, but I probably can't do it on my own."

"Thanks!" I exclaimed and threw my arms around her. "You're the best!"

"You really care about him, don't you?" She asked and backed a little away from me.

"I guess I do." I said quietly.

She looked at me with disgust on her face, or was it pity?

"He's not all that bad." I defended my feelings. "He can be really sweet, too."

"I have a hard time believing that." Bonnie said and gathered her books and put them into her bag. "Come on, let's go find Elena and Stefan!"

…

In the tomb, Damon was waiting by the exit.

"Finally!" He said and widened his eyes when he saw us. It was just the four of us there – Bonnie, Elena, Stefan, and me.

"You should be grateful that we're even here!" Stefan said and threw him a bag of blood. "So you won't feed on the girls when you're out!"

"Ha ha!" Damon said sarcastically, but he did take the blood bag and began drinking.

"And you can thank Hannah that we're here." Stefan went on. "The rest of us wouldn't mind you being stuck in there for eternity."

Damon looked at me with a sincere expression on his face. No smile, no roll of his eyes, no sarcasm. Then he turned back to his good old self.

"Well, first you'll have to get me out of here!" He said with a quirky smile at Bonnie. "If you don't mess up the spell."

"I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you!" She replied fiercely. "If anything _does_ go wrong, you'll be stuck in there forever. That is, if you're not going to be dead!"

"Come on!" Damon said flashing a smile. "You couldn't kill _me_!"

"Wanna bet?"

"No." Damon said quietly and made Stefan chuckle.

"Then shut up!" Bonnie said and closed her eyes.

We were all silent for a while. Then, all of a sudden, Bonnie's eyes opened wide. She didn't say anything, she just looked at Damon, who sort of poked the air of the exit with his index finger. It went right through. Then he took a step forward, and he was out of the tomb.

"Thank you from the bottom of my heart!" He said with a look at Bonnie. Though there was a sarcastic edge to his voice, I'm pretty sure he meant it.

"Drop dead!" Bonnie replied and made Stefan help her up from the hole in the ground. A moment later he came back for Elena.

"Damon?" He said. "You care to help up Hannah?"

"Sure." Damon replied, and Stefan had gone.

"So..." He said and looked down. "I guess I owe you a thanks."

"You do." I said, not sure what would happen next.

"You will never tell anyone about this!" He said and gave me a hug. "But thank you. I _am _very grateful."

I was so startled by this that my initial reaction was to take a step backwards.

"Don't worry." He said and squeezed me tight for a while. "I won't bite you again. Not ever."

"I'm not..." I began. "I'm not afraid of _that_ anymore."

"Then what _are_ you afraid of?"

"Katherine!" I blurted out. I never intended for him to know.

"Ah... _That. _Well, she's not here, is she?" He said and put his arm around my waist. "Hold on tight." He said, just before he jumped. "I'll make sure to keep you safe from her."

Yeah. That's not really what I meant, but I didn't tell him.

…

Alright, so I did care about Damon. I guess there was no need to try to convince myself that I didn't anymore, because every time something would happen, he would be the first one I'd think of. Yeah.

So a few weeks later there was an auction in Mystic Falls. Not just any auction, but a bachelor auction. Damon had promised to attend, though I'm not really sure all these town money raising events were really his style. I mean, he always acted so cool and tough, so one wouldn't really think he was the soft kind of guy who would do anything to help charity.

I know, he did help me washing windows that one time, and he did try to outrun Stefan at another charity event, but for some reason I had a feeling he was only doing these things to make a good public figure.

Anyway, on the night of the auction, I noticed that he was acting quite _friendly_ with Mrs. Lockwood, the mayor's wife and Tyler's mom. Though she was way older than him, it made me a little jealous, and even more so when she started bidding on him at the auction. And she actually ended up giving the highest bid, which made me feel really awful. I wanted to bid, too, but I didn't have that kind of money. I would never have been able to keep up with Mrs. Lockwood.

However, when the auction was over, Damon didn't leave with Mrs. Lockwood. He left without her, and I was very curious to find out why.

Elena's aunt Jenna had won a date with Mr. Saltzman, and Lily was really upset, as, apparently, something was going on between the two of them. For some reason I had a feeling that Damon's leaving had something to do with Mr. Saltzman, so I found Elena and asked her to go spying on him with me.

"You're crazy." Elena said with a snort. "Damon will know we're there. He's got ears like a bat, remember?"

"Oh, right." I said disappointedly and sighed. "Then what?"

"What?"

"What do we do?"

"About what?"

"About Damon."

"Does something need to be done?" Elena asked teasingly. She knew I hated not knowing what had happened and why he had left like that.

"Come on, Elena!" I begged with puppy dog eyes. "We gotta find out what he's up to!"

"Those eyes won't work with me. You're not Stefan!" She chuckled.

"Please come with me, Elena, my best of best friends?" I tried, and finally, she gave in.

"Alright. Let's go find him." She sighed with a small smile. "But only because you're crazy about him!"

"I'm _not_!" I exclaimed as color rose to my cheeks.

"Yeah right." Elena rolled her eyes. "Let's take my car. I just gotta go get my phone. I left it at home."

"Fine with me!" I said dreamily. I was going to see Damon again soon.

Elena parked the car outside and got out. I stayed in the car, as she was only going to fetch her phone in her room, and then we would be off again.

I was playing with the radio, changing channels and trying to find a better song, when I heard a loud scream. I had a little trouble taking off the seat belt, but apart from that, I practically jumped out of the car and hurried inside.

The scream had come from Elena, who now sat on the floor by the side of someone, who's face I couldn't see. It was a man, no doubt, and I could hardly breathe, until I saw who it was.

"Alaric, wake up!" Elena cried and shook his shoulders.

"Oh my..." I said and got down on my knees. I put my index finger to his throat, but there was no pulse.

"Elena, he's..." I cried. "...He's dead!"

"No! He can't be!" She exclaimed and shook him again.

"Who did this?" I asked not expecting a reply.

"I did." I heard a male voice behind me.

I turned around as fast as I could, and there, by the door, was Damon. He was leaning nonchalantly against the wall, seeming very pleased with himself.

"What?" I yelled and got to my feet. "How could you?"

"That's easy, human necks break so quickly!" He said and snapped his fingers.

"You _killed_ him!" I breathed standing a little closer to him than I would normally do.

"I _know_!" He said staring into my eyes. I stared back at him furiously.

"You're despicable!" I spat, still looking him in the eyes. "I can't believe I ever cared about you!"

Then I broke the stare and backed away from him. He didn't reply.

"Elena, let's go. We gotta go find Jenna. Unless you killed her as well?" I snorted at Damon.

"No. No, I didn't touch Jenna." He replied. I couldn't tell if he was sad or amused or maybe even confused.

Right when I was about to close the door behind me, I heard a male voice from inside that wasn't Damon's. I stopped dead in my tracks.

"Mr. Saltzman?" I said in disbelief. Elena had also heard him.

We turned around and went back inside, where Mr. Saltzman was now sitting upright on the floor.

"But...This isn't possible!" Elena exclaimed and rushed to Mr. Saltzman's side. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Only a little sore around my neck." He replied and looked up at Damon, who looked just as surprised as I felt.

"How did you do that?" He asked, but Mr. Saltzman didn't reply right away. "Tell me, how did you die and come back to life?"

"Oh no, you didn't?" I sighed with a look at Damon. "He's a vampire now?"

"I didn't turn him!" Damon said and sat down by the somewhat confused teacher.

"No, no I'm not a vampire, Hannah." Mr. Saltzman assured me. "I've just got my magic ring." He lifted his hand and showed us the ring on his finger. The one that looked like Damon's and Stefan's rings.

"Where did you get that?" Damon asked reaching out for it. Mr. Saltzman removed his hand and got up instead.

Then Jenna entered the door.

"What's going on here?" She asked with a fond look at Mr. Saltzman. "The three of you need to leave now. This is my date with Alaric, not yours. By the way, Damon, shouldn't you be with the mayor's wife right now?"

…


End file.
